The tumultuous buyout of UAL Corp., parent of United Airlines, was pronounced officially dead Friday - precisely a week after British Airways bailed out and two weeks after its financing collapsed, sending Wall Street into a Friday the 13th tailspin.
United pilots and a UAL management group, however, vowed to continue efforts to mount a new bid for the company. And United mechanics, who waged a tooth-and-claw battle against the buyout, said they might take a role in a new bid - if it is the only way to prevent outsiders from taking over the nation's No. 2 airline.Airline Acquisitions Corp., formed last month to oversee the proposed $6.75 billion, $300 a share bid for UAL, informed the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday that its tender offer had expired and was not being extended, a spokesman said.
The offer - and the rights to revise and extend it - expired at midnight Thursday under terms of the initial filing with the SEC, the spokesman said.
That means that any group trying to put together a new bid must start from scratch.
UAL directors earlier this week voted against continuing efforts to sell the company, at least at present, and decided to focus instead on other ways of enhancing the value of its stock.