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Intercontinental Exchange Inc. abandoned its potential offer for London Stock Exchange Group, paving the way for Deutsche Boerse's $14 billion acquisition of the British company.

LSE shareholders hoping for a higher offer were disappointed, sending the shares tumbling. ICE put the blame on the London exchange, saying LSE executives wouldn't meet to discuss a possible buyout, and didn't engage even after ICE publicly said it was weighing an offer back in March.

"When we can't get visibility and don't have confidence, it makes it very, very hard to look our shareholders in the eye and suggest we're going to deliver a specific amount of performance," ICE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Sprecher said on a conference call after the Atlanta-based exchange's statement.

LSE shares plunged as much as 9.9 percent, and were down 4.8 percent to 2,559 pence as of 3:46 p.m. in London. Deutsche Boerse's stock rose 7 percent, the most since 2012, on optimism it would avoid a bidding war.

LSE agreed to a Deutsche Boerse takeover in March. The deal, which according to data compiled by Bloomberg values LSE at about 10 billion pounds ($14 billion), would create the dominant exchange operator in Europe. ICE was also said to be lining up financing to support an LSE offer.

"I guess it's back to plan A," said Steve Schlemmer, who specializes in European merger arbitrage at Churchill Capital UK in London. "The counterbid risk was foremost on everyone's minds and now you can reduce that a lot."

LSE and Deutsche Boerse still have to appease regulators, which precedent proves is no small feat. And while British Prime Minister David Cameron has called the plan to headquarter the new company in London "a good thing, and very welcome," that issue has been a sticking point for some in Frankfurt.

Britain's potential exit from the European Union has been another unknown throughout the buyout discussions. Deutsche Boerse CEO Carsten Kengeter said Tuesday that waiting for Brexit concerns to ease "was not an option" and that he acted quickly to preempt a rival bid.

"There are all these political and regulatory hurdles yet," said Schlemmer. "It's not a done deal for Deutsche Boerse, it's a wait-and-see and deal."