Casualty Count From NYSE-Amex Merger

Between 260 and 280 American Stock Exchange workers reportedly will be laid off after the exchange is absorbed into the New York Stock Exchange later this year. But 100 to 120 employees are expected to be spared - including the relatively few remaining traders and brokers on the Amex trading floor.

NYSE Euronext plans to move those traders to NYSE's Blue Room, an unoccupied trading floor, The Wall Street Journal says.

The prospective layoffs represent about 75 percent of the remaining Amex staff of 380, which had already been reduced before the January announcement that NYSE Euronext would buy Amex for $260 million in stock plus proceeds from the sale of the American Stock Exchange building.

"NYSE officials are likely to keep only about 100 to 120 of those workers, though the figure hasn't been finalized," says the WSJ, citing unnamed sources. "Some of the remaining 260 to 280 employees may stay at the NYSE for three to 12 months after the deal closes."

NYSE has said it expects that combining technology and staff and other synergies from the deal will result in $100 million annual cost savings within two years after the purchase. The deal is slated to close in the third quarter, pending approval by Amex members and regulators.