Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.N) will buy U.S. online brokerage optionsXpress Holdings Inc (OXPS.O) in a $1 billion deal that gives Schwab a stable of some of the most active retail traders in the booming options market. The friendly all-stock takeover, announced on Monday, is a nod to the increased use of options contracts as a way to speculate and hedge -- a far more complicated and capital-intensive strategy for individuals than plain vanilla stock-trading. The deal returns Schwab to the acquisition game after a quiet decade, and could help the big U.S. brokerage hang on to the most sophisticated of its online trading clients.
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