Spirit Airlines to Begin Discussions with JetBlue
JetBlue made an unsolicited and surprising proposal earlier this week to acquire Spirit Airlines. The $3.6 billion offer from JetBlue came weeks after Spirit signed a merger agreement with Frontier Group Holdings.
Spirit Airlines today announced that its Board of Directors has determined, after consultation with the company’s outside financial and legal advisors, that the unsolicited proposal received from JetBlue to acquire Spirit in an all-cash transaction for $33.00 per share could reasonably be likely to lead to a “Superior Proposal” as defined in Spirit’s merger agreement with Frontier.
That means that Spirit now intends to engage in discussions with JetBlue with respect to its proposal, in accordance with the terms of the company’s merger agreement with Frontier.
Spirit remains bound by the terms of the merger agreement with Frontier, and Spirit’s Board has not determined that JetBlue’s proposal in fact superior. In addition, Spirit notes that there can be no assurance that the discussions with JetBlue will result in a transaction. “Spirit shareholders do not need to take any action at this time”, the company said in a statement, “and Spirit’s Board has made no change to its recommendation that its shareholders adopt the merger agreement with Frontier.”
