Frontier, JetBlue at a stalemate in merger battle for Spirit Airlines

Bloomberg

With a fateful vote a day away, Spirit Airlines Inc is standing alone at the altar despite having two suitors that have spent months trying to acquire the low-cost carrier.
Spirit’s proposed merger with Frontier Group Holdings Inc doesn’t have enough support from shareholders, and the acquirer has said it’s not sweetening the terms of the deal any further. Meanwhile, Spirit’s talks with would-be merger partner JetBlue Airways Corp have yet to produce a breakthrough, people familiar with the discussions said.
Spirit shareholders are set to decide on Frontier’s $2.6 billion cash-and-stock proposal, a vote that has been delayed four times already but is likely to go forward as planned this time, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
The agreement, reached in February, was upended by an all-cash JetBlue bid that now exceeds $3.7 billion. Some
investors prefer the higher offer, though Spirit and Frontier have argued JetBlue is more likely to be blocked by antitrust
regulators.
Spirit is continuing talks with both Frontier and JetBlue, so a deal can’t be ruled out completely. But weeks of negotiations with both would-be partners have yet to produce a resolution. In a plea earlier this month for a further delay in the shareholder vote, Frontier said it was still “very far” from winning sufficient support.
A prominent shareholder
advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc, has urged investors to vote against the deal with Frontier while
another advisory firm, Glass Lewis & Co, has thrown its support behind it.