Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011 | 5:13 p.m.
Another AirTran Airways shareholder is suing over Southwest Airlines' plan to buy AirTran for $1.37 billion, charging in a Las Vegas complaint Tuesday that the deal shortchanges AirTran shareholders.
"The proposed transaction is at a grossly inadequate and unfair price and was arrived at by an unfair and tainted process that was intended to provide valuable assets of AirTran to defendants for unfair and inadequate consideration," shareholder William Nesbit charged in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada alleging violations of federal securities laws.
The suit, seeking class-action status, names as defendants Southwest Airlines Co. of Dallas, AirTran Holdings Inc. of Orlando, AirTran directors and Guadalupe Holdings Corp., which the suit says is a Nevada corporation created by Southwest to consummate the merger.
Southwest has noted the $7.69 per share it's paying for AirTran is a 69 percent premium to what AirTran was trading for just before the merger announcement on Sept. 27.
Southwest also said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Nov. 19 that lawsuits challenging the merger are without merit.
In that filing, Southwest noted lawsuits challenging the merger had been filed in Nevada's 1st District Court in Carson City, in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas and in state court in Orange County, Fla.
"Southwest, AirTran and the individual AirTran defendants believe that each of the lawsuits are without merit and intend to defend them vigorously," Southwest said in its filing.
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