U.S. Court Block JetBlue's $3.8 Bln Acquisition Of Spirit Airline

(RTTNews) - The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts blocked JetBlue Airways Corp.'s (JBLU) $3.8 billion acquisition of Spirit Airlines Inc. (SAVE), citing competition concerns.

SAVE closed Tuesday's regular trading at $7.92 down $7.05 or 47.09%. In the after-hours trading the stock further dropped $0.39 or 4.93%.

The court found that JetBlue's proposed takeover of Spirit is unlawful because it "does violence to the core principle of antitrust law: to protect the United States' markets - and its market participants - from anticompetitive harm, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

The court's decision follows a 17-day trial that began in October 2023. In March 2023, the Justice Department, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New, Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia sued to stop the merger.

In July 2022, JetBlue agreed to acquire Spirit Airlines for an equity value of $3.8 billion.