UPDATE: Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are terminating their merger agreement, according to Associated Press airline reporter David Koenig and other sources.
After delaying a vote by its shareholders four times on whether to accept a merger agreement with Frontier Airlines or a takeover bid by JetBlue Airways, Spirit Airlines will go forth with its meeting today. However, the deal with Frontier, the preferred choice of Spirit management and its Board of Directors, is likely to fail.
The news was first reported by Reuters, although as of 11:30 a.m. ET there had been no voting results.
Spirit, Frontier and JetBlue did not comment on the latest developments.
Previously, Frontier had resigned itself to the fact that it could not match JetBlue's far superior financial offer of almost $1 billion more, saying earlier this month it would not make another bid. Frontier CEO Barry Biffle said in a July 15 letter that his airline simply did not have the support of Spirit shareholders.
"...We still remain very far from obtaining approval from Spirit stockholders based on the proxy data we received as of July 8," Biffle wrote to Spirit CEO Ted Christie and General Counsel Thomas Canfield.
According to Reuters, if Spirit shareholders decline to accept the Frontier bid then Spirit has no choice but to cancel the agreement it verbally made with Frontier in February before JetBlue became involved.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story will be updated throughout the day as news develops.
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