JetBlue Makes Offer for Spirit Airlines: What Are the Odds?

JetBlue Airways has offered to buy Spirit Airlines for about $3.6 billion and break up a plan for Spirit to merge with rival budget carrier Frontier Airlines and it remains to be seen whether either deal will pass muster with the Biden Administration.

In a statement, New York-based JetBlue said combining with Spirit would lead to lower fares by creating “the most compelling national low-fare challenger” to the nation’s four biggest airlines: American, Delta, United and Southwest, which is the same rationale used by Frontier for merging with Spirit.

If you thought a Frontier-Spirit merger wasn't going to be approved, a JetBlue-Spirit merger most certainly will not.

Several congressional Democrats warned that the proposed combination of Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines at the time it was proposed would reduce competition among low-cost carriers and drive up fares during a time of inflation.

Scroll down for more...

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and five others urged Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division to review the merger closely for potential violations of antitrust law, and consider acting to stop it.

“For decades, the airline industry has been plagued by increasing consolidation, producing massive airline giants while leaving consumers and workers behind,” the lawmakers wrote. “Because the proposed Spirit-Frontier merger threatens to exacerbate these trends — including by potentially increasing prices during a period of high inflationary pressure — we urge the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation to closely review this megamerger.”

JetBlue is not the same kind of so-called ultra-low-cost-carrier. Its base fares are generally higher than those on Frontier and Spirit, but it offers amenities they don’t, including free TV and free internet at every seat.

JetBlue’s strength on the East Coast, including Florida, would mean much more overlap with Spirit.

We here at Gambling911.com give the odds of either merger announced before the end of 2022 3-1 odds of occurring at this time.

Elon Musk Buys Into Twitter, World Braces for Doge Maximalism

On Tuesday, Elon Musk became Twitter's biggest shareholder.  Our colleagues over at CoinGeek warn that it's a twist that likely portends more questionable ‘crypto’ shilling by the Tesla boss.

Musk claims that Twitter is “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy” and (rhetorically, it seems) asked “Is a new platform needed?”

Musk’s board seat will prevent him from increasing his Twitter stake beyond 14.9%, which for the moment alleviates any concerns that Musk was looking for a complete takeover of the social media giant, Steven Stradbrooke of CoinGeek noted.

From Stradbrooke:

It’s unclear whether Musk sincerely desires to improve Twitter to preserve ‘democracy’ or whether he simply believes that buying a major stake will allow him to tweet whatever he likes—like calling someone ‘pedo guy’—without fear that he’ll be struck off the platform.

Stradbrooke suggests that Musk's proposed edit feature on Twitter - supported by nearly three quarters of respondents - "will certainly come in handy for some of the popular BTC maxis trying to remain credible once they come to the realization they have been shilling the wrong Bitcoin for years."

Musk may have tipped his hand as to his personal Twitter revamp priorities by agreeing with someone who urged him to “do something about these Crypto spam bots,” something Musk called the “single most annoying problem on twitter imo.” Musk is a supporter of verified accounts, which he believes would do a lot to reduce Twitter’s “troll/bot networks” problems.

IEEE Blockchain Symposium 2022 highlights: Building Better Internet With IPv6 and Blockchain

The IEEE UAE Blockchain Group Kick Off Symposium took place on this past month, and it was a resounding success. The event, held at the University of Dubai, was a great opportunity for experts from industry, government, and academia to educate each other on how blockchain can best be deployed in the modern world.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com