Subpoenas are flying ahead of Northwest Airline's February 28th court date, where a group of shareholders will ask Northwest's bankruptcy judge to appoint an official committee to represent shareholders.
Seven subpoenas went out, some to major carriers, demand documents about Northwest's value and any potential mergers be turned over to them.
The parent company of United Airlines, UAL Corp., (UAUA) Continental Airlines Inc., (CAL) Northwest bankruptcy consultant Seabury Group, and the Blackstone Group, a private equity fund, Lehman Brothers Inc. and Deutsche Bank all received subpoenas.
Northwest has said repeatedly that it expects that there won't be enough money to pay shareholders anything, and that its common shares will be canceled as part of its emergence from bankruptcy, which it expects by the end of June.
Chief Executive Doug Steenland said on Jan. 30 that Northwest has no merger plans for 2007. But their airline has been the rumor of many possible takeover targets. I'm surprised AMR Corp., (AMR) the parent company of American Airlines was not subpoenaed, as they seem the most likely to persue any sort of deal.
Comment Preview