Judge blocks $3.8B JetBlue-Spirit merger

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked JetBlue Airways’ proposed $3.8 billion acquisition of budget carrier Spirit Airlines, agreeing with the Justice Department that the deal would hurt the availability of low-cost air travel tickets. U.S. District Judge William Young wrote that the proposed merger "does violence to the core principle of antitrust law: to protect the United States’ markets – and its market participants – from anticompetitive harm."Spirit’s stock plunged on the news, falling more than 51% durin ...