e6bpilot

Yep. This is activist investor 101. Come up with a researched proposal to "rescue" a company on the rocks with a low stock price. Ingratiate yourself to the biggest bloc of institutional investors possible, and either go for broke and force a proxy war, or attempt to force positive changes and sell your stake.
They could have walked away at the close of business today $100M richer for making a PowerPoint deck and writing a neat letter that could have been written by just about any one of us, but I am guessing that they don't want to invite the SEC into their house. This will either go 6 months or they will be hanging out for a very long time.
In any case, none of us can do a damned thing about it.

cessnapilot

good take on the situation I think Here to read

WHACKMASTER

Again, senior management is getting what it deserves hopefully not to the detriment of employees. I don't feel sorry for them.

5tools

Elliot restructured TWA, WorldCom and even Enron and we all know how that played out. Elliot is not suggesting the company do anything its not already looking at. I found it very interesting all you guys on here are critical of the thought Gary Kelly sold SWA to WallStreet, yet you applaud a Hedge fund firm that does know anything about running an airline execpt how bankrupt one, ie TWA, amazing, to say the least. I'll take Bob Jordan and Kelly any day of the week over a Hedge fund group.

Cyio

I agree with you however after reading that link above I actually think they have a valid point. Perhaps tanking Bob and Gary and the promoting say Andrew is the better option as opposed to trying to bring in someone totally off the street. I would imagine a lot of pushback and even slower change.

Liberty

I assume that what they’re asking for and what they will settle for are going to be two different things. I could get excited about your proposition above. Along with some new marching orders from a more adequate BOD for AW.

Salukidawg

I still contend that BJ will spend more time with his family and GK will come back as interim CEO while a succession plan is worked out. I like Andrew, but am not sure he's ready to be CEO quite yet. I would go with someone like Tom Nealon or even someone from outside the current leadership tent. My dream candidate would be someone like Oscar Munoz who briefly was CEO at United and ran CSX Railroad for years. He is incredibly capable of running a complex company like Southwest. I know my last candidate is highly unlikely, but one can dream at least.

REF 5

Maybe it's just me but I still don't think AW is ready for prime time. He's a very smart dude and transparent, but he still lacks that communication skill's neccesary to deal with wallstreet, media and instutional investors. Which is what a CEO's main job is. Kelly, Bastian, Kirby all have the communication skills. Just watch them speak and deal with media, etc. AW can't do that.

Elliott see's a revenue problem only. SWA has a cost problem also. The only way out of it is to get more airplanes. Which we all know will not happen anytime soon. So as they pound sand about premium product, assign seating and squeezing the SWA customer, it still won't be enough. I read an interesting article today, which basically outlines SWA's depreciation runs about 1.5 billion dollars a year. Obviously thats a non cash item BUT these guys are crying about SWA valuations as being under valued. Well, you gotta fix that if want make the company more attractive to investors. Throw in massive mx costs(no airplanes), new expensive contracts(no new airplanes to increase ASM's), it's going to be a rough road that I think Elliott will have to fight. Love to hear their solution for that. Since they seem to think minimal cap ex to make this all happen.

REF 5

It would be nice to have a board that has some airline experience as well as some tech experience. The whole board looks like a nursing home brunch gathering. Some of them are their for poiltical reasons(like the ex senator) but geesh. Get some young blood. Need a good CEO but definitly need some of the board to go. Former CEO of JC Pennies is on the board. Why? What does she bring to the table?

Rseat

Whatever it is that they're after, it has nothing to do with making it better for employees. That's not their business. They want ROI at any expense.

They might give the appearance of "petting the bunny," as was stated somewhere else, throwing a bone to employees in their diatribe. Nobody is going to convince me that these types give a rat's behind about me or my well being.

This industry is littered with battle scars from such "corporate enhancers" if you will. It may not be a hostile takeover that they're aiming for, but it's certainly not anything that's intended for the benefit our employees.