Thread: US/AA merger talks pushed back...

Here is a Q&A from a Reuters reporter to a unnamed industry insider..

Q. What happened to the rumors that there’d be a decision around Jan. 11?
A. It slipped to Jan. 30.
Q. What happened to the rumors that there’d be a decision around Jan. 30?
A. It has since slipped to around mid-February.
Q. Why did it slip?
A. We can surmise that it just takes time to settle all the questions. We may also speculate that American Airlines executives were heavily involved in the rebranding rollout that finally happened on Jan. 17, which took up a lot of their time.
Q. What’s up next?
A. The AMR board is supposed to meet this week, I believe Tuesday and Wednesday. If we’re talking about an announcement on or before mid-February, this is the time for the AMR board to make its decision or give guidance on the final unsettled items.
Q. What’s driving the mid-February deadline?
A. As we understand it, the non-disclosure agreement signed by the Ad Hoc Committee of AMR Corporation Creditors expires in mid-February. Feb. 15? In any case, they presumably would be free to buy and sell AMR stock or debt instruments after the NDA expires. The other NDAs are expiring this Thursday, Jan. 31, we’ve heard. If the past holds true, those NDAs presumably would be extended to match the Ad Hoc Committee’s NDA timetable.
Q. What’s left to decide?
A. We can only speculate. But we’ve heard that the issue of top management is still being debated. The US Airways side wants the merged airline to be run by Doug Parker and his team. But Tom Horton and his team want to stay. Sometimes, those disputes are settled by giving one side the chairmanship and the other the CEO job. But that probably is less likely in this case because this didn’t start out as a friendly merger.