AirTran Airlines (AAI)

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Airtran drops bid for Midwest...

"Sunday, August 12, 2007
Story last updated at 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, August 12, 2007

Midwest Air Group lets AirTran takeover offer expire

By DINESH RAMDE
Associated Press Writer

MILWAUKEE - AirTran Holdings Inc. dropped its $431 million takeover bid for Midwest Air Group on Sunday night, and Midwest immediately announced it would pursue an all-cash offer from private equity firm TPG Capital.

About two-thirds of the shareholders of Midwest, parent company of Midwest Airlines, had agreed to the cash-and-stock offer from Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran, which was estimated at $389 million when it was announced months ago. AirTran had offered $15.75 a share, which spokesman Tad Hutcheson said made the equity value of the transaction in excess of $431 million based on Friday's closing price of AirTran stock.

But the board of Milwaukee-based Midwest, which had fought AirTran's hostile offer for months, said instead it would move ahead with the offer of $16 per share from TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group.

AirTran, the parent company of AirTran Airways, will return to its strategy of growing as a standalone business, said David Hirschman, another spokesman.

"We've said all along that this is something we'd like to do, not something we need to do," he said of the proposed takeover. "We've got great growth prospects independently and that's what we're going to focus on."

AirTran's tender offer technically expired Friday at midnight but both sides had until the market opened Monday to reach a deal.

Midwest has fought AirTran's hostile bids since it offered $78 million in June 2005. But Midwest relented last month, signaling it would consider the latest offer as well as offers
from three other suitors."

http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/081207/D8QVT18G0.shtml