Lionel Hutz' breakdown and analysis of the JetBlue $JBLU / Spirit $SAVE merger DOJ case

Lionel Hutz, Editor of the Lionel Hutz Newsletter on Substack, joins the podcast today to discuss the JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU) / Spirit (NYSE: SAVE) merger DOJ case.

Lionel's JetBlue/Spirit write up: https://lionelhutz.substack.com/p/in-the-spirit-of-competition

Chapters:

[0:00] Introduction + Episode sponsor: Stream by Alphasense

[1:48] What is so interesting about the JetBlue / Spirit DOJ case

[4:18] JetBlue / Spirit merger saga - background

[11:34] Why is the "Northeast Alliance" relevant

[20:26] DOJ case - "Route Pair Analysis" / "Local Market Pairs

[27:06] Airline market / thoughts on divestitures

[32:44] DOJ argument about relevant markets

[44:03] Hurdles for DOJ to show anti-competitive effects

[47:15] Notion of "Hot Docs" and their relevance to the trial

[54:07] Judge for this case, his background and why this matters

[59:08] Consensus around JetBlue's paying a huge premium for Spirit. Why doesn't JetBlue just walk?

[1:06:34] Department of Transportation joined the DOJ to block the merger - what this means?

[1:14:12] Trial scheduled to start October 16, could there be a settlement between now and then?

Today's episode is sponsored by: Alphasense

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