He Bought a Nearly Bankrupt Company From Warren Buffett for $1,000 and Turned It Into a $98 Billion Giant

In 1997, Jeffrey Sprecher, founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, bought the near-bankrupt Continental Power Exchange from Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy for $1,000 and assumed its debt. ICE, founded in 2000, later bought NYSE Euronext in 2013, becoming owner of the New York Stock Exchange; by January 2026, ICE's market value reached $98 billion.