JetBlue Makes More Improvements to Spirit Acquisition Proposal

There are more twists and turns in the JetBlue proposal to acquire Spirit Airlines.

JetBlue has announced further improvements in its deal with Spirit.

The new proposal, submitted at the request of Spirit’s Board and following the completion of JetBlue’s diligence review and discussions with Spirit’s management team, updates the airline’s previous proposals (dated March 29, 2022, April 29, 2022, and June 6, 2022, respectively).

The deal increases the share price to $33.50 and strengthens the divestiture commitment, including a significant enhancement to its prior proposals through an obligation to divest assets of JetBlue and Spirit up to a material adverse effect on the combined JetBlue-Spirit, with a limited carve-out to this divestiture obligation for actions that would be reasonably likely to materially and adversely affect the anticipated benefits under JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance, according to JetBlue.

The new proposal also includes a reverse break-up fee, accelerated prepayment of $1.50 per share, and a Divestiture commitment in New York and Boston.

“After discussions with the Spirit team last week and further due diligence review, we are more convinced than ever that a JetBlue-Spirit transaction would create a true national competitor to the Big Four and deliver value to all of our stakeholders,” said Robin Hayes, chief executive officer, JetBlue. “Together, we will deliver lower fares and a better experience to more customers.

A letter has been sent to Spirit’s board of directors containing the updated proposal.

Spirit was originally supposed to vote on the merger decision back on June 10 but ended up postponing it until June 30.