What will AirTran's response be?

[gt1900]

If im correct, Midwest tried to schedule their board meeting before June 14th but they didn't give enough advanced notice and the SEC made them reschedule.. I believe Midex was trying to pull one over but the SEC called them out.. So, I wouldn't worry about it too much..

 

[Lear70]

Hypothetical: Could AirTran be outbid again? Interesting that Northwest and Midwest announce code-share the day that AirTran offer expires. Interesting that Midwest moves board meeting to June 14, 2007 after Northwest comes out of ch.11. Could Northwest and Midwest be talking behind the scenes? May Northwest in the next couple of weeks after coming out of Ch.11 make a competing bid for Midwest and scuttle AirTran's plan? Northwest has been trying to get MKE for years. If AirTran is successful in their bid for Midwest, they could establish a major hub dead smack in the middle of two of Northwest's major hubs. Again, could Northwest be gearing up to make a competitive bid for Midwest to block AirTran?

Just a thought, but having a domicile within barely an hour's flight distance of two other hubs doesn't sound like a really great strategic move.

NWA always wanted MKE as more of a way to put Midwest out of business and take their customers for their international feed than any real interest in running it as a hub such as MEM...

Interesting move; I'd think of it more as a way to get AAI to sweeten the deal than any real ploy for NWA to purchase Midwest out from under us, but then again, what do I know...?

 

[FlyWolf]

Hypothetical: Could AirTran be outbid again? Interesting that Northwest and Midwest announce code-share the day that AirTran offer expires. Interesting that Midwest moves board meeting to June 14, 2007 after Northwest comes out of ch.11. Could Northwest and Midwest be talking behind the scenes? May Northwest in the next couple of weeks after coming out of Ch.11 make a competing bid for Midwest and scuttle AirTran's plan? Northwest has been trying to get MKE for years. If AirTran is successful in their bid for Midwest, they could establish a major hub dead smack in the middle of two of Northwest's major hubs. Again, could Northwest be gearing up to make a competitive bid for Midwest to block AirTran?

Eagle:

1- No, Midwest is not for sale. period.
2- TH and the BoD don't want to sell at any price. period.
3- Airtran, NWA, or whomever, they don't want to sell.
4- They won't sell their sweetheart, the company they started in 1983. They want to keep everything as it is.
5- I bet, you will see them take the company private before they sell to anyone.

Again, just my own opinion.

 

[gt1900]

Actually Flywolf... Your not 100% correct....

1. NWA could absolutly outbid AAI for Midex, its up to the shareholders to decide. Midwest is a public company, its ALWAYS for sale, just like any public company. Its just a matter of the right price..
2. Your right, but TH doesn't own the company, the shareholders do. There is a price the shareholders are willing to sell for, and it seems AAI has found it.
3. Again, your right. But I say again, TH and the board don't own the company, the shareholders do.
4. It may be thier decision not to sell, but, once shareholders vote in a new Board of Directors that will act in the way the shareholders want them too, the company is history. 3 new board members this year, and 3 next... Ie, Midex gone in about a year from now..
5. I won't say never, But, I would be very, very suprised to see Midex go private. In order for Midex to go private someone would have to buy them out at the current stock price that AAI is offering.. At that point it could turn into a bidding war if AAI wanted to up the offer.. You are not going to see many private investors buy a company with an overinflated stock price..

Heres whats going to happen folks.... Now that AAI has a list of all the shareholders AAI is gonna try and sell thier business plan on the few shareholders that they haven't been able to talk directly to.. However, those shareholders know that AAI is trying to buy Midex, so they could have made themselves known to AAI... In other words, don't expect too many more shares to be tendered by June 8th... What AAI would gain by having more shares tendered would just be more pressure towards the board and TH to change thier minds... At this point though, it doesn't matter much since AAI has 57% of the shares tendered.. You can expect AAI's 3 nominated board members to get seats at Midex. However, that still doesn't get a majority share of the board... All the 3 AAI board members would be able to do is try and convince the remaing board members (they would only need to change 2 board members minds) to change thier minds..... With a majority of the shareholders and 3 board members pushing for the transaction to take place, it would be pretty hard for TH and the board not to change thier minds..

 

[Eagle757shark]

Just a thought, but having a domicile within barely an hour's flight distance of two other hubs doesn't sound like a really great strategic move.

NWA always wanted MKE as more of a way to put Midwest out of business and take their customers for their international feed than any real interest in running it as a hub such as MEM...

Interesting move; I'd think of it more as a way to get AAI to sweeten the deal than any real ploy for NWA to purchase Midwest out from under us, but then again, what do I know...?

I think it could be interesting going down the stretch....I don't think NWA is interested in Midwest, but I do think they'd be interested in making a bid for Midwest just to try and get it away from AirTran or drive the price up.

Flywolf, I understand what you are saying. I know Midwest isn't for sale. However, I wouldn't be surprised if NWA coming out of ch.11, made a competitive bid for Midwest just to block AirTran or drive up the price.

It's funny, but history has a way of repeating itself. Back in 2004, Southwest came out of no where to make a competitive bid for ATA trumping AirTran in their quest for Midway gates. AirTran could have raised their bid, but chose not to. Could the same scenario happen again, but this time in MKE? The next 30 days will be interesting.
Now off to some Saturday fun!

 

[FlyWolf]

gt1900, I am always NOT a 100% correct

Off course Northwest can outbid Airtran and that we are a public company and I know exactly what you'r saying, but I was trying to make a point that even though we are a publicly held company our BoD don't want to sell, and its shown by not sitting down with airTran to negotiate.

There is a very good reason that Airtran keep extending the offer and not dropping the offer all together (and keep the Midex stock inflated) its exactly for what you are saying, if AAI drop the offer and it goes down to $9-10 area I bet they will take it private, they just don't want to do it at $15 and Airtran doesn't want to drop the offer and go away for now, otherwise would have went private.

From what I heard, one of the BoD have enough $$$ to buy all of Midwest stock back, forget about the rest of the members.

Also gt. do you really think that the shareholders list will make that much difference? investors are not idiots, they have been following the news very closely.

 

[FlyWolf]

I think it could be interesting going down the stretch....I don't think NWA is interested in Midwest, but I do think they'd be interested in making a bid for Midwest just to try and get it away from AirTran or drive the price up.

Flywolf, I understand what you are saying. I know Midwest isn't for sale. However, I wouldn't be surprised if NWA coming out of ch.11, made a competitive bid for Midwest just to block AirTran or drive up the price.

It's funny, but history has a way of repeating itself. Back in 2004, Southwest came out of no where to make a competitive bid for ATA trumping AirTran in their quest for Midway gates. AirTran could have raised their bid, but chose not to. Could the same scenario happen again, but this time in MKE? The next 30 days will be interesting.
Now off to some Saturday fun!

I see what you'r saying Eagle, I also wouldn't be surprised to see a NWA bid, very interesting time ahead indeed. Enjoy your Saturday night fun

Cheers

 

[CitationLover]

well MEH's market cap is holding right at the offer ~$385 million. anyone see this nut Eden whose suing MEH now?

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=572342
http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.657944/browse_thread/thread/27f05f99ce2c9b2e

 

[FlyWolf]

What an idiot

 

[Fly4hire]

If AirTran is successful in their bid for Midwest, they could establish a major hub dead smack in the middle of two of Northwest's major hubs. Again, could Northwest be gearing up to make a competitive bid for Midwest to block AirTran?

NW has always been brutal about protecting their turf. Remember they were the spoiler for a CAL/DAL merger a few years back. They still hold the golden share for CAL, and now have an anti-merger poison pill in their stock offering, while DAL gave up their poison pill. NW management may be ruthless with their employees, but they are even more so with competitors and vendors.

Not sure where this is going, but I guarantee it's not fluff. If NW can spoil the MEH deal it protects it's turf AND puts a big crimp into AT's expansion plans. What will AT do with all those acft on order if they don't have a place to put them?

This will get really interesting in the next month. While all the talk has been of big mergers, it could in fact be with the consolidation of various smaller LCC into legacy carriers for incremental expansion vs. the mega-merger...