In both a letter to Spirit’s board of directors and a special website designed to convince Spirit’s board, JetBlue told Spirit that it has filed a “Vote No” proxy statement that urges Spirit shareholders to vote against “the inferior, high risk, and low-value Spirit/Frontier transaction at Spirit’s upcoming special meeting.”
How badly does JetBlue want Spirit as one of its own? How about a $200 million reverse break-up fee as an incentive?
Didn’t get a fair shake
JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes rolled out everything he could to convince Spirit that it was going in the wrong direction.
“JetBlue offers more value – a significant premium in cash – more certainty, and more benefits for all stakeholders. Frontier offers less value, more risk, no divestiture commitments, and no reverse break-up fee, despite more overlap on non-stop routes and their own regulatory challenges," Hayes wrote in his letter.
The thing that apparently irritates Hayes the most is that Spirit didn’t give JetBlue a fair or equal chance.
“The Spirit Board … rejected our proposal … without asking us even a single question about it. The Spirit Board based its rejection on unsupportable claims that are easily refuted,” Hayes said.
ConsumerAffairs reached out to Spirit for a response to JetBlue’s latest move but did not immediately receive a response.