Exchange, Telecom Deals Prove Antitrust is So 2012

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Whether it is a consolidating telecom sector or a blockbuster Thursday merger proposal between financial powerhouses IntercontinentalExchange(ICE) and NYSE Euronext(NYX) , the sectors that failed to consolidate last year are betting 2013 is the year antitrust officials back off.

Currently, three multi-billion dollar telecom sector deals face U.S. antitrust approvals by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, and Thursday's $8.2 billion ICE and NYSE merger would face as many as five regulatory approvals around the world. At this time last year, many in the business press might have said the present slate of pending mergers is a reflection of corporations thumbing their nose at feckless antitrust officials.

A lack of hysterics in the proposed exchange's consolidation and a string of telecom deals, which includes T-Mobile USA's merger with MetroPCS(PCS) , Sprint's(S) merger with Softbank of Japan, and the company's more recent planned acquisition of Clearwire(CLWR) signal that the facts have changed dramatically in both industries.

At this time last year, investors in both sectors were recovering from AT&T's(T) failed $39 billion effort for T-Mobile and they were licking their chops for officials in Europe in the U.S. to nix a similar pan-American merger between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse of Germany.

Few see antitrust officials playing a heavy hand in a hat trick of telecom mergers and analysts at Berenberg Bank and Stifel Nicolaus said on Thursday a lack of overlap in ICE and NYSE Euronext's disparate trading and clearing businesses make a deal blockage more remote than last year, when antitrust officials also balked at a joint bid between ICE and Nasdaq(NDAQ) for the iconic NYSE.

So what is the difference?