Spirit Airlines again puts off a vote on Frontier’s offer as it mulls JetBlue’s.

Spirit Airlines said Thursday that it had again delayed a shareholder vote on its proposed acquisition by Frontier Airlines, allowing it to continue discussions with Frontier and with JetBlue Airways, which has made a rival bid.

The vote, which was to take place Friday morning, was rescheduled for July 15.

The postponement is the third time in a month that Spirit has pushed back the vote as it has repeatedly spurned JetBlue, arguing that antitrust regulators would probably reject a combination of the two airlines. Instead, Spirit has encouraged shareholders to support the Frontier deal, which it has said has an easier path to regulatory approval.

JetBlue has argued that regulators are likely to scrutinize either deal and could find as much to object to in a combination of Spirit and Frontier, which compete in many markets. JetBlue’s all-cash offer also values Spirit more highly, at about $3.6 billion; Frontier’s stock-and-cash proposal valued the company at about $2.4 billion.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/business/spirit-airlines-frontier-jetblue.html