Mesa Terminates Bid for Atlantic Coast

[erjman]

Looks like we can all have a good Christmas after all. All of us at least except JO. My only thought is did he scrap the deal because UAL gave him a deal anyways? Or did he really loose like I hope he did? Happy Holiday's from a happy Mesa employee. Go independence!

Reuters
Mesa Terminates Bid for Atlantic Coast
Tuesday December 23, 7:27 am ET


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mesa Air Group (NasdaqNM:MESA - News) on Tuesday said it will scrap its unsolicited takeover bid for Atlantic Coast Airlines (NasdaqNM:ACAI - News), a day after United Airlines abandoned its regional service agreement tied to the two regional carriers.
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On Monday, United's parent UAL Corp. (OTC BB:UALAQ.OB - News) ditched its deal with Mesa to provide service out of Washington Dulles International Airport. Under the deal, Mesa would have taken over certain United Express East Coast routes that are now operated by Atlantic Coast.

Mesa had offered 0.9 of a share of its stock for each Atlantic Coast share. Atlantic has repeatedly rejected Mesa's offer and the deal is now being scrutinized by the U.S. Justice Department and District of Columbia antitrust regulators.

 

[Mongolikecandy]

There is a God!!!

 

[Mallard]

Can I get an AMEN!!!!??????!!!!!

 

[Tony Soprano]

AMEN!!!!!!

Praise Jesus!!!

 

[WileE]

Smoke and mirrors.

With all the attention focused on the ACA nonsense, JO quietly acquired Midway and who knows what else. I'm not sure ACA was anything more than a diversion for some more stock shennanigans anyway. How much you want to bet he sold a bunch of Mesa stock before the annouced merger and then bought it back after the price went down. Now coincidentally with the announced failure, Mesa stock goes up. Suprise JO makes a couple more million for his own private bank account, which is all he cares about anyway, the company can go to hell as far as he's concered as long as he makes mony himself. The guy is a snake of the lowest order.

 

[Simon Says]

Way to go ACA.........Standing up to JO is no easy task.

 

[FinalApproach]

A round of applause to the ACA's MEC..

"Let me be crystal clear: the pilots of Atlantic Coast Airlines have absolutely no interest in being acquired by Mesa or deviating in any other way from our management's independent vision," Capt. Hunt said. "This hostile takeover is not in the best interest of ACA stakeholders and employees, and we will fight to the bitter end to avoid becoming yet another airline tossed in the Mesa graveyard."

The officers of the MEC for ACA crafted an excellent letter to the Mesa Air Group...in addition...the District of Columbia-Virgina's office of Antitrust Enforcement got involved investigating JO...

Congratulations ACA (Independence Air)...great victory...

Happy Holidays to all!!!

 

[homerjdispatch]

You mean ACA, right? RIGHT!!!!

 

[350DRIVER]

Good for Mesa, they surely don't need a company who's future is defintely up in the air, has furloughed guys on the street, lost routes, and finally had to go "independant" cause they were pretty much fuc$ed after they lost the routes.,.. ACA is nothing more than a horrible gamble (both short and long term) , just happy Mesa did not touch a "crashing damaged item." Obviously you can see the company who is continuing to hire (pilots too ), purchase new equipment, prosper, succeed, expand route structure, aquire other companies (Midway), etc, etc, etc. It would have sucked to have seen Mesa try and bail these guys out since in reality ACA probably could have brought Mesa right down the gutt(a) with em.


There is a God,

3 5 0

 

[Heavy Set]

Happy holidays to you too 350DRIVER. I am very happy for ACA and life without that jacka$$ JO will be much happier - plus you get to fly Airbuses now.

When will Independence Air officially begin operating (officially cut the cord with UAL)? How about the Airbus contract with Ryan - when does that start?

 

[Rottweiller]

Well that is great news - way to go ACA and you all have a VERY Merry Christmas and a great New Year.

 

[46Driver]

My prediction - for all you that care (which is probably no one...). UAL realizes it is up the proverbial creek without a paddle. UAL either re-affirms the lucrative ACA contract or decides to codeshare with ACA. At any rate, I'm gambling and just bought a little ACAI stock while it was under $9 a share.

Merry Christmas!

 

[shamrock]

Quote:
"Good for Mesa, they surely don't need a company who's future is defintely up in the air, has furloughed guys on the street, lost routes, and finally had to go "independant" cause they were pretty much fuc$ed after they lost the routes.,.. ACA is nothing more than a horrible gamble (both short and long term)"

So why did they try so hard to take over ACA?


Quote:
"just happy Mesa did not touch a "crashing damaged item"."

They weren't able to touch this "crash damaged item".


Quote:
"It would have sucked to have seen Mesa try and bail these guys out since in reality ACA probably could have brought Mesa right down the gutt(a) with em."

Yeah, I'm sure JO was doing this to help out everyone at ACA, just like he looks out for everyone at Mesa.

I wish ACA nothing but the best, but if they are to fail, it really is a shame they won't be able to do us all a favor and at least take JO with them. (So just to be clear here, I'm saying ACA=good, JO=A-hole)

 

[Andy]

My prediction - for all you that care (which is probably no one...). UAL realizes it is up the proverbial creek without a paddle. UAL either re-affirms the lucrative ACA contract or decides to codeshare with ACA. At any rate, I'm gambling and just bought a little ACAI stock while it was under $9 a share.

Merry Christmas!

46Driver, we're on opposite sides of the bet ... I shorted ACAI stock today. I'm waiting for the arbs to unwind their positions; that alone could send ACAI back below $7/sh.

 

[Dr.Hwang]

I believe in the miracle of Christmas!!!! Best of luck to ACA/Indy Air.

 

[zkmayo]

350Driver,

I see youre drinking the JO's koolaid. Put down the koolaid and the crackpipe and get a grip...

Have you thought about how much your "rosy" future at MESA is if UAL or USAir dont make it???

Even if we were to fail at ACA, at least I wouldnt have to say I worked one day for JO. Unlike you...
Merry xmas

 

[Otto Coarsen]

I'm With You Shamrock

JO may be a prick, but he is the prick that turned around M.A.G.

I'm sick of seeing the rediculous Mesa bashing (I'm not a MESA pilot), but the vicious attacks I've been seeing are ludicrous. The pilots did what they had to do to eliminate Freedumb and protect the CCair pilots. I'm also sick of hearing how the pilot's should have held out for a better contract (and comparisons to the Comair contract) which was drawn Pre-911. The constant rhetoric is a great example of false pride coupled with ignorance.

ACA will probably not make it as an independant. Mesa would have done nothing but good for the blue ridgers who are hanging on to a sinking ship. Come on now, a regional who still has pilots on furlough??? Jeez even Coex and Eagle can't say that anymore... To make matters worse, after ACA parks the J41s and passes off the Dojets, do you really think they will have positions for all the DO and JS drivers? (Well, I guess they will need alot more flight attendants for the airbuses..... there's an option)

I actually interviewed with Mesa last week... Myself and the 2 ACA furloughees, that were in attendance there along with the 47 other interviewees will tell you that they are going in a positive direction.. And by the way, many of the other interviewees actually had decent flight time and experience despite the rumors of 1000 hour wondersticks (there were only a few)

To the upcoming ACA furloughees, I mean ABSOLUTELY no disrespect when I say this, but I hope to see you on the line at MESA in the near future... It's a shame you will have to start at a much higher seniority number as a result of having to go through the interview process as opposed to a list merger, but with Mesa hiring 1100+ in '04, I'm sure I'll see you there...


O.C.

 

[MONKEY]

WITHOUT ACA'S CASH

Now that JO has been stopped before he could plunder the cash that ACA has on hand, he may have a very difficult time getting the financing that he needs at the rates that he needs it. Could be hard times at Mesa. Also JO stated that the merger could have saved around 20 million the first year. Will this be the end of Mesa? I doubt it, but it could be a huge set back.

 

[46Driver]

Otto,
The reason that we have furloughs is that we ramped up the hiring of pilots in anticipation of getting more airplanes to fly for UAL. When UAL left ACA out of the equation, we were overstaffed - its that simple.

As for MESA doing ACA any good, you have to be kidding me. Growth would have stopped and reversed. MESA would slowly transfer assets away from ACA and we would have died a slow death.

Andy,
Good Luck on your investment. Who knows which way it will go. As long as you don't get too heavily involved (I make it a rule to never sink a lot of money into the company I work for lest emotion cloud my judgement.....) it is a lot of fun to play the market. I got lucky on ACA in the past - hope to again.

 

[j41driver]

Re: I'm With You Shamrock

Mesa would have done nothing but good for the blue ridgers who are hanging on to a sinking ship.

Sinking ship? What sinking ship? The only sinking ships I see around here are United and USAirways. Isn't Mesa tied to both of those carriers? Now you tell me who's hanging on to a sinking ship.