JetBlue Tries to Buy Spirit Airlines

JetBlue Airways on Monday increased its offer to buy Spirit Airlines. Keith Peters has this report.

That raises the stakes again in a battle over the nation’s biggest budget airline. JetBlue increased its cash offer to $33.50 per share, or more than $3.6 billion. That’s an increase per share of $2 over a June 6 offer and 50 cents over JetBlue’s original April bid. Frontier Airlines put Spirit in play in February when boards of the two airlines agreed to a merger in which Spirit shareholders would get cash and 48.5% of the combined company. That deal was originally valued around $2.9 billion but has lost value because of a decline in Frontier’s stock price. Keith Peters reporting.