Originally Posted by
DrJekyll MrHyde
I actually saw it on a news roundup an hour after I wrote that reply… {sigh}
Still, we’ll see if the DOJ holds to that rhetoric. They were probably trying to keep the invite list in check for the giant M&A party everyone has been talking about. Every talking head on financial news has been talking like antitrust laws don’t exist anymore, the DOJ probably needed to issue a statement. And although they have stated they intend to keep their strict review guidelines their emphasis will be on protecting American jobs; notably they didn’t mention protecting American consumers. None of the potential airline M&A activity effects a significant amount of American jobs, wouldn’t you say?
Any time you do a merger people will lose jobs. Whether it's through a severance or just plain old fashion elimination of a duplicate job. It's all about synergies. Just remember, two airlines airlines just merged a few months ago. Managements job is to argue the merits of what a merger will bring IF the DOJ objects. Spirit never argued in court that their existence was threatened. If they argued in court that they would go Ch11, the outcome may have been different. The judge made the decision based on the DOJ arguements of bad for consumers(based on a old law) vs good for consumers that Jetblue and Spirit made. Nothing in court was ever discussed about a threat to the enterprise existence. Meanwhile on the the other side of the country, HA/ALK are now one company. It's all about the arguments you make in court.