In Direct Plea To Shareholders, AirTran Ups Bid For Midwest

The words of AirTran CEO Joseph Leonard were direct and to the point: "You gave us no choice, but to bring our offer directly to the owners of the company," he said in a letter to Midwest Air Group's board. After Midwest rejected an earlier offer by AirTran to buy it out for $11.25 a share ($290 million) on the grounds it undervalued the company, AirTran upped its bid to $345 million, or $13.25 a share, while taking the case directly to Midwest's board. The offer as it now stands is for $13.25 a share, made up of $6.625 in cash and 0.5884 AirTran shares, and is due to expire on February 8 but could be extended. Midwest's shares ( pictured) rose $0.50, or 3.9%, to $13.40 as a result of the increased offer. The deal comes on the heels of other high profile buyouts in progress in the Airline sector including U.S. Airways hostile bid for Delta and a possible Northwest-Delta merger.

• Sources: Washington Post, MarketWatch, TheStreet.com, Mercury News
• Related commentary: Midwest Airlines Is Flying High. US Airways Ups Ante for Delta to $10.2 Billion, Northwest and Delta Flirt with Merger
• Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: AirTran Holdings (AAI), Midwest Air Group (MEH). Competitors: Continental (CAL), American (AMR), JetBlue (JBLU), US Airways (LCC), Southwest Airlines (LUV), United (UAUA), Delta (DALRQ.PK), Northwest (NWACQ.PK)

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