Lufthansa Thrills JetBlue, Confounds Us
Do you own an airline that's worth about half of what it was at the beginning of the year? Lufthansa may want to talk to you, too! The German carrier is dropping $300 million on a share of JetBlue, but no one's quite sure what's going to happen next.
Lufthansa is only picking up 19 percent of the low cost carrier, but it will get to put a representative on JetBlue's board of directors. The American airline will of course get a big infusion of (much needed!) cash from the deal, and the German company could be trying to lock down takeoff and landing slots at JFK.
While ideas about transatlantic code sharing and a full Lufthansa takeover have been floated, none of them seem too plausible. In fact, one Morgan Stanley analyst can't figure out why the deal was done at all:
It's not clear to us what Lufthansa gains from such a transaction.
Related Stories:
· As Lufthansa Flies JetBlue, Analysts Wonder Why [NYT]
· JetBlue coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo of JBLU stock price: Google Finance]
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