Doug Parker: US may not be interested in merging with AA if we have to wait until Ch 11 is over

[BoeingBoy]

And Horton has stated he wanted to emerge from bankruptcy and then look at merger partners. Then the next week he changed his tune and said AA would look at partners now. I guess that both makes them schizophrenic in your world.

Not really. Horton has been pretty consistent about wanting to emerge from BK first. Nothing in the proposed talks with potential merger partners and others indicates that the desire to emerge from BK as a stand-alone and then merge has changed.

Even Parker, if he follows his normal pattern, doesn't want to actually merge while AA is in bankruptcy. He just wants a merger agreement and have the POR based on a merger that would happen coincidentally with AA's emergence from BK.

Jim

 

[Raptorman49]

Doug may not be interested but if American were to offer a wad of cash for U.S. Air the Board might be interested & give him the boot ......LOL
I for one could careless if we merge with U.S. Air or any carrier not likely it will do us any good once were locked into a 6 year contract.

 

[700UW]

Parker and Horton met this morning.

http://blogs.star-te...fast-in-dc.html

 

[olderguyAMT]

Doug may not be interested but if American were to offer a wad of cash for U.S. Air the Board might be interested & give him the boot ......LOL
I for one could careless if we merge with U.S. Air or any carrier not likely it will do us any good once were locked into a 6 year contract.

A big NO from all 3 major unions would benefit Doug Parker's strategy. This is a real possibility.
Parker probably told his ol' buddy Horton that his way is the best way, and after BK, they could still buy B6. Horton probably learned about how he can keep his job and be a part of the huge new company.
Old buddies still, but they are bitter rivals now. Who has the trump card?

 

[signals]

As yet another merger-wolf may be coming to an end, Mr. Parker is looking for a way to save face for yet another fiasco.

 

[olderguyAMT]

As yet another merger-wolf may be coming to an end, Mr. Parker is looking for a way to save face for yet another fiasco.

We all should know in a very short time if Parker is full of BS. Most of us already know about Horton.
If it looks and acts like a croc, well, it aint no nice fuzzy little wabbit!

 

[Overspeed]

We all should know in a very short time if Parker is full of BS. Most of us already know about Horton.
If it looks and acts like a croc, well, it aint no nice fuzzy little wabbit!

I think what is most interesting is in the latest Horton interview he states that US is only worth half what AA is at the present time. That any merger would involve the "acquisition of US" not US taking over AA. Might be why AA is accumulating such a cash war chest.

 

[FWAAA]

Yesterday, Horton said what many of us have been saying ever since Parker started talking about a takeover of AA, and that is that US needs AA a lot more than AA needs US.

American Airlines Chief Executive Officer Tom Horton said his bankrupt company doesn’t need a merger as badly as smaller suitor US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) because its value is on the rise.

“American is not going to determine its strategic future based on the urgent need of another company to make a deal,” Horton said in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg’s global headquarters in New York. While the value of US Airways “is probably at its high water mark,” he said, the “value of our company is increasing.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-19/american-airlines-needs-merger-less-than-suitor-ceo-says.html?cmpid=yhoo

 

[olderguyAMT]

I think what is most interesting is in the latest Horton interview he states that US is only worth half what AA is at the present time. That any merger would involve the "acquisition of US" not US taking over AA. Might be why AA is accumulating such a cash war chest.

Horton and Parker may have been friends, but are bitter control freak rivals now.
It will all be up to the respective lawers in the courtroom playing a legal tit for tat game.

But whose side are the creditors on and does it make any diff?

Parker thinks the merger would be advanced it the pilots vote YES.
I suppose the same is true of the F/A and Mechs, although I was thinking that a NO vote would help advance the merger possibilities. I could have been wrong on that one. Would an abrogation help or hinder the merger in BK?

 

[FWAAA]

US has a market cap of about $2 billion, only 20% of its post-merger peak of about $10 billion.

AA's creditors know that once AA cuts about $2 billion of costs (as AA is trying to do), then AA's post-bankruptcy market cap (as an independent airline) could easily be $5 billion to $10 billion.

I'm not sure the unsecured creditors will want to share much of that value with US - after all, Parker merged two airlines with bankruptcy-lowered costs in 2005 and in here in 2012 that combined entity is worth just 20% of what it was worth five years ago. That's not a very impressive record. Will AA's creditors give Doug Parker yet another shot? If history and past performance are any guide, his track record does not show that he can keep share prices up over the long term.

 

[wings396]

Please tell me any airline that's share value has remained high for the past few years with fuel prices being what they have been........
Nothing will ensure that AA's share value will be, or remain high post BK.
Your key word above is "could"..........