JetBlue to acquire Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion
Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita discusses news that Spirit Airlines will be bought out by JetBlue after the budget carrier terminated its deal with Frontier.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: Well, let's take a look at our trending ticker here. JetBlue one we're watching very closely today. It is down after Spirit terminated its prior merger agreement with Frontier. JetBlue then stepping in, announcing it will acquire Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion to create a national low fare challenger to the dominant big four airlines. We should say Spirit is up today in the session. Here's what Frontier Airlines, though, CEO Barry Biffle had to say to Yahoo Finance earlier today about that deal falling apart.
BARRY BIFFLE: I'm disappointed for their shareholders. I think they're not going to get to participate in the upside that we're kind of in the first few innings of. And I'm disappointed for their employees. They're not going to have the growth that ours.
But look, I have to look after our shareholders and our employees. And it's a great day for us because we get to be, again, the low cost carrier of the United States. We can own the space. And so it's great for our employees. I mean, not the path that I planned to become the leading ULCC, but sometimes you just get lucky.
BRIAN CHEUNG: And some interesting commentary there. I mean, you do wonder if-- again, it's too early to say, right? This is still kind of-- the dust is settling on this, whether or not Frontier could be a target for another airline somewhere down the line. I mean, the broad story here is industry consolidation, right?
AKIKO FUJITA: Consolidation, yeah.
BRIAN CHEUNG: There's only a few major airlines these days, very different than, say, 20, 30 years ago.
AKIKO FUJITA: Interesting how the public negotiations played out in all this, right? I mean--
BRIAN CHEUNG: I mean, it was nasty. I mean, they-- like, you remember there were situations where all three of the airlines were slinging allegations against each other. And now, of course, this story is far from over, right, because you do wonder about whether or not regulators are going to look into this, right? So--
AKIKO FUJITA: Regulators are gonna step in. That's still a big question mark, yep.
BRIAN CHEUNG: --you know, let's not just-- let's not close the books on this one just yet.
AKIKO FUJITA: Although you'd wonder if they would have gone as far as to announce this if they felt like they weren't going to get the regulatory approval, just given how long this has all played out.
BRIAN CHEUNG: But we have seen deal breakups happen before, so we'll see how that develops. Coming--
