DOJ asks for more information on Alaska-Virgin merger

The US Department of Justice antitrust division has requested Alaska Airlines and Virgin America to provide additional information regarding their merger proposal. The airlines said they “will be responding promptly” to the request. In general, this so-called “second request” usually involves the govt asking for “business documents and data that will inform the agency about a company’s products or services, market conditions where the company does business, and the likely competitive effects of the merger.” The airlines say they continue to be optimistic that they can seal the deal soon. Alaska and Virgin executives have said they plan to close the transaction before the end of the year. In early April, Alaska announced that it planned to buy Virgin America for an equity value of US$2.6b. <br/>