Posted on 04/30/2010 6:27:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Continental Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines are expected to announce Monday that they are merging to form the world's largest airline, people familiar with the matter said.
UAL's board of directors is meeting Friday, while Continental's board is meeting Friday and Sunday to discuss the deal, these people said.
These people cautioned that negotiations could still fall apart as they did in 2008, when Continental backed away. But after a hiccup over pricing, the talks appear on track, they said.
The combination would leapfrog over Delta Air Lines Inc. as the biggest airline by passengers carried.
United is much stronger financially than it was in 2008. This week, United posted a narrower first-quarter loss of $82 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $382 million. Revenue rose by 15%, to $4.2 billion.
A weekend impasse over which share-price ratio should be used to calculate the deal's value appeared to resolved itself as UAL's share price declined this week. The market is now expecting a swap of about 1.057 UAL shares for each share of Continental.
United had wanted the exchange terms to be based on the closing price of its stock on the day before any agreement is signed. But that would lower the value for Houston-based Continental shareholders, since UAL shares have climbed more than Continental's since United's interest in a merger was disclosed earlier this month.
Continental's board met Wednesday and agreed to continue the talks. It was also asked to consider a range of prices in an effort to resolve the share-swap disagreement, those people said.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The “proud bird with the golden tail.”
Then they will be TOO BIG TO FAIL????????/........................
We rhyme...........
Remember that movie with James Coborn “The President’s Analyst” where the evil was done by “TPC”, The Phone Company?
Someday soon there will just be one of everything, The Airline, The Government, The Electric Co., The Water Co., The Food Co., The Automobile Co., The Fuel Co.
It ain’t gonna be pretty.
Also known as
“The slick chick with the brass ass.”
We “really move our tail for you...”
No worries. It’ll take United personnel a good bit of time to train the Continental employees on United’s strict standards of rudeness, crudeness, and bad service.
Another blow to my beloved Cleveland, Ohio.
Continental has a major hub in Cleveland, which the taxpayers had a generous hand in creating. Seems the new headquarters, once merged, will be in that clean government capital....Chicago.
How do I hate United ?
let me count the ways.
#1. Bumped from three successive flights at O’Hare, then stranded overnight in the terminal without so much as an apology. They sent me a $50 ‘voucher’ for future flight. I cut it into little pieces and mailed it back.
Amen to that. I'm sure they'll be removing any amenities that make the flight more comfortable from the Continental planes as well.
We quit flying on anything but Southwest several years ago unless there is absolutely no option. Texas is a non-union state, Illinois is a union state. Seems like BO is in the process of moving everything to Illinois. Is the White House next?
LOL! It only seemed to take US Airways a couple of months to bring the improving America West back down to their standards.
It’s going to hurt us here in Houston as they shut down the Continental headquarters and lay off everybody. Maybe I will start flying Southwest now.
Remember the Continental flight line? Good times, eh?
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