FlyerTalk Forums - Possible LiveTV Spin-off??

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Possible LiveTV Spin-off??

JetBlue has filed an addendum to the offering related to their recent debt/stock issuance scheme. Among the less interesting bits is a note that fuel prices continue to rise and that one CC processing company may require an additional $30-35MM in holdbacks. Most interesting to me, however, is the note about LiveTV:

Quote:

On April 22, 2008, we stated that we were considering a range of strategic alternatives for our LiveTV business, which provides in-flight entertainment systems and data connectivity services for commercial aircraft operated both by us and by third parties. We further stated that it might be a few quarters until we have prioritized our options regarding these alternatives. Morgan Stanley is serving as our financial advisor. We cannot predict the outcome of our consideration, or whether it will result in the occurrence of any transaction.

As I read that, it looks like LiveTV might be spun off as an independent entity. It would be an interesting move, as LiveTV is a capital-intensive business with a lot of costs associated but also a high potential up-side. I wonder how it would fare as an separate company.

More reading here.

Your raise good questions. When Jetblue bought the company I think it was meant to keep the service mainly for themselves as a competitive advantage. (They did extend the service to frontier, but not so that it could be offered as a complimentary product).

Now that LiveTV is expanding its order-book(CAL) and services(Betablue/recent purchase of verizon's Airfone freq) I imagine that it is now probably seen as a viable company in its own right. One that doesn't IMO need to be sheltered under the umbrella of a larger entity.

That being said, I woud be a little surprised if the let their newest differentiation product (connectivity in-flight) get out the front door before being able to claim it as their own first.

If this was to go ahead I don't think it would happen for awhile. Seems like more of a contingency plan for a horrible future world where fuel continues on its march upward or simply fails to drop in the not to distant future.