Originally Posted by
n9810f
We can't afford Alaska. Seen their stock price? It would cost us a heckuva lot to buy them - would likely mess with Richard's plan to reduce debt substantially as DL would have to borrow to buy AS.
We wouldn't have to spend a penny. Just swap a little stock here and there. As long as the BOD's and Execs get enough out of the deal to buy another island or whatever it will happen.
Delta didn't "pay" for NWA either. One of the reason AS's stock is so overinflated is their bloated partnership with us in the first place. Add to that their cash on hand, which they keep in a merger, and their revenue, which the combined carrier also keeps, and it all rolls gently into one entity like an old man slowly slipping into a warm bath.