JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines announced Thursday that they had agreed to a merger, a day after a long-running bid for Spirit by Frontier Airlines fell apart.
Under the agreement, JetBlue would acquire Spirit for $33.50 per share in cash, significantly more than Spirit’s closing price of $24.30 on Wednesday. The deal values Spirit at about $3.8 billion.
The combination would create the fifth-largest carrier in the United States. But it is likely to face antitrust scrutiny from the federal government.
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