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The fate of Spirit Airlines’ merger with fellow low-cost airline Frontier Airlines grows increasingly murky.

Spirit this week postponed its shareholders’ meeting for the third time, opening the door for further talks from Frontier and rival bidder JetBlue Airways. The latter two delays each came just hours before Spirit shareholders were due to vote on a merger of Frontier, a cash-and-stock combination now worth $2.6 billion after Frontier recently sweetened the offer to fend off JetBlue’s advances. JetBlue is offering around $3.7 billion in a cash takeover.

Ahead of the last scheduled vote, scheduled for Friday morning, it appeared Spirit didn’t have enough votes to have the frontier deal approved, according to people familiar with the matter.

Spirit would be on the hook to pay Frontier a more than $94 million break-up fee if it decides JetBlue’s offer is superior and abandons its original deal.

“We are working hard to bring this process to completion while we remain focused on the well-being of our Spirit family,” Spirit CEO Ted Christie said in a note to employees late Thursday after the vote was again postponed had been. Spirit declined to comment further on Friday.

For its part, JetBlue applauded the delay. CEO Robin Hayes said in a statement late Thursday, “We are encouraged by our discussions with Spirit and hope they will now recognize that Spirit shareholders have expressed their clear, overwhelming preference for an arrangement with JetBlue.”

Neither JetBlue nor Frontier offered any further comment on Friday.

At stake is the chance to become the country’s fifth-largest airline behind giants American, Delta, United and Southwest. A merger of Spirit and Frontier could create a low-cost airline giant, while JetBlue says its takeover bid would “turbocharge” the airline’s growth, whose service includes more amenities and mint business class on some planes.

“Spirit’s board of directors is hellbent on a frontier deal. They’ve never wavered,” said Brett Snyder, a former airline executive who now runs the Cranky Flier travel site. “Your challenge is how do you get the votes?”

When the frontier deal comes to a vote, Spirit shareholders will decide on a Cash and stock deal. Bank stocks could represent a future benefit for shareholders if the travel recovery drives the share price higher. But they risk the opposite in the event of a recession or a slowdown in travel, although low-cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier are less sensitive to the ups and downs of business travel than larger carriers.

JetBlue’s cash-in-hand offering avoids gambling.

“With the frontier deal, you trust what will happen after the merger to make your money. At JetBlue, it’s like, here’s the money, take the money, go away,” Snyder said.

JetBlue has repeatedly sweetened its offer for Spirit, including increasing a reverse breakup fee should regulators block the deal. The airline’s persistence has put pressure on Frontier, which recently increased its own bid to match JetBlue’s reverse break-up fee.

Spirit’s board of directors has rejected each of JetBlue’s proposals, arguing that a takeover would not go through with the Justice Department, which is suing to block JetBlue’s own regional alliance with American Airlines in the US Northeast

The Biden administration’s Justice Department has vowed to take a hard line against deals that threaten competition, even assuming divestitures. JetBlue, for example, vowed to divest Spirit assets in the Northeast to make its proposed Spirit acquisition more palatable.

But that’s only an issue when a frontier deal is dead — and despite delays in shareholder voting, that may not be the case, according to Bob Mann, an aviation analyst and former airline chief executive.

“I see it more as a case where Spirit is just unquestioningly cautious about listening and judging [JetBlue’s offer] and they may ultimately decide for themselves that it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Should a Frontier deal fail in a shareholder vote and pave the way for JetBlue, Frontier could still come out on top: JetBlue’s plan is to convert Spirit’s densely packed and no-frills Airbus planes into its own, the seatback umbrellas, more Legroom and more legroom include free wifi.

Whatever JetBlue pays for Spirit “is a down payment,” Mann said. “The integration costs will be billions and take years.”

This would make Frontier the largest and preeminent low-cost airline in the US at a time when almost everything is becoming more expensive.

Young center Shane Wright, who many see in the Montreal Canadiens uniform, would have given a sharp look at the Habs table when he heard his name called by the Seattle Kraken at Bell Center Thursday.

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After politely applauding the first-level selection of Juraj Slafkovsky, Wright appeared ready to send a message to CH leaders. However, he had to wait until fourth place before he could catch their attention.

After shaking hands with National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman, Wright had knives in his eyes. However, we don’t know if he was targeting the Canadian’s staff.

The Ontarian later thanked the City of Montreal for the warm welcome, but admitted to the TSN network that he was “a little upset” at being ignored by the CH.

A few months before the draft, Wright said he was very passionate about his goal of being selected first, adding that he thought he was “the best player in the auction and he deserved that honor.”

Musk’s plan to buy Twitter has worried policymakers around the world.

Joe Skipper | R

Less than three months after agreeing to buy Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk says he wants out. It’s no surprise — Musk expressed the buyer’s remorse shortly after the deal was announced.

Musk’s lawyers on Friday sent Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s chief legal officer, a letter explaining why the Tesla CEO and richest person in the world has no plans to proceed with the merger agreement.

The lawyers echoed the arguments made by Musk, claiming that Twitter downplays the number of bots and spam accounts on the platform. Just weeks after Twitter accepted the unsolicited offer in late April, Musk began publicly raising doubts about the company’s number of fake and spam accounts.

“In short, Twitter has not provided any information requested by Mr. Musk for nearly two months, despite his repeated, detailed clarifications aimed at simplifying Twitter’s identification, collection, and disclosure of the most relevant information contained in Mr. Musk’s original.” Inquiries were sought,” the lawyers wrote on Friday.

They added that inaccurate information provided by Twitter in SEC disclosures “could provide additional basis for terminating the merger agreement.”

Back in May, Musk said in a tweet“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts actually represent less than 5% of users.”

Meanwhile, the company’s shares plummeted as investors feared the deal would fall through. A day before Musk said the deal was on hold, Twitter’s market cap fell to $9 billion below Musk’s roughly $44 billion purchase price. It didn’t help that the broader market tumbled, led by a collapse in tech stocks.

Twitter shares fell another 5% to $35.04 after the close on Friday after falling more than 5% in regular trading. They’re now 35% below the $54.20 price Musk was willing to pay.

Twitter isn’t ready to let Musk go. Bret Taylor, the company’s chief executive officer, said Friday that Twitter would be pursuing the case in court.

“Twitter’s board of directors is committed to completing the transaction at the price and terms agreed with Mr. Musk and plans to take legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” Taylor wrote in a tweet. “We are confident that we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

Some analysts viewed Musk’s public statements about Twitter spam accounts as a convenient way to take a hit on the company’s value.

Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he believes Musk is launching a “negotiating tactic” in hopes that Twitter will eventually lower its selling price.

“The market has collapsed,” Sacconaghi said at the time. “He’s probably using the disguise of real active users as a negotiation ploy.”

Musk went on to draw attention to what he believes to be the biggest issue of spam account undercounting, indicating he viewed the issue as an impediment to completing the acquisition.

In mid-May, he again expressed his doubts about Twitter’s accounting for spam accounts to his more than 100 million Twitter followers. He claimed at the time that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal “refused to provide evidence” that less than 5% of the accounts were fake or spam accounts.

“Yesterday the CEO of Twitter publicly refused to provide <5% proof," Musk tweeted. "This deal can't move forward until he does."

In June, Musk again made public statements about the proliferation of fake and spam accounts on Twitter, telling a Bloomberg event, “We are still waiting for a resolution on this matter and it is a very important matter.”

Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that Musk and his associates were unable to check Twitter’s spam statistics and that the deal was in jeopardy, causing Twitter shares to fall 4%.

It’s a very different tone from Musk when he was aggressively pursuing a deal earlier this year. In April, he sent a letter to Taylor expressing his belief that the company “needs to be transformed into a private company” and that the messaging platform has the potential to become “the platform for free speech around the world.” be”.

“Twitter has tremendous potential,” Musk said at the time. “I’ll unlock it.”

CLOCK: He probably realized that owning Twitter wasn’t going to be much fun

As handy as apps are, they all share the same kryptonite: glitches. Some glitches seem to cause problems, like the occasional DoorDash outage, resulting in a lot of hungry people. However, on the evening of July 7th, a temporary glitch in the DoorDash app resulted in hundreds of people ordering free food.

The error was caused by a payment processing issue that allowed users to check out without an authorized form of payment. The DoorDash bug went viral on Twitter when people found out about it, causing restaurants across the country to take orders and deliveries en masse. By the time DoorDash fixed the issue, the damage had already been done: people had placed hundreds of orders for free food, drinks, and even Plan B.

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab)

Twitter users who placed orders during the glitch are now concerned that DoorDash may now extract the full prices of their purchasesand some say they woke up the day after the glitch to find their accounts gone calculated. People are also calling those who took advantage of the glitch but didn’t tip drivers for large orders, drawing attention to the extra work the restaurant workers have been hit with.

This isn’t the first time users have encountered glitches in a grocery delivery app. In May 2022, a $15 free lunch GrubHub coupon code caused the app to crash entirely, leaving many New York City residents both hungry and frustrated. Likewise, restaurants were bombarded with orders and drivers were often left untipped. DoorDash is currently working to fix the effects of the bug.

“We are actively canceling fraudulent orders and are in touch with affected merchants to ensure they are compensated for any unauthorized orders they may have received,” DoorDash told Mashable. “We work to ensure that we always provide the highest quality of service to the communities we serve, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes.”

The Portland Trail Blazers would do anything to retain star player Damian Lillard for the long term. They proved it by agreeing to a two-year contract extension that will net him about $60 million a season.

The 32-year-old wasn’t scheduled to freelance until 2025, but that hasn’t stopped Trail Blazers top management from offering him the gold medal to possibly spend the rest of his league career in Oregon State. He will be paid an average of $44 million over the next three campaigns before beginning his new contract, which will see him earn about $16 million more annually.

Lillard spent his entire NBA career with the Trail Blazers, making six appearances in the Silver Tour All-Star Game in 10 campaigns. He has averaged 24.6 points per game since turning pro.

The former first-round pick, sixth overall in 2012, only played 29 games last season due to a stomach injury.

When people think of it getting hot in their back seats, that’s not what they have in mind. Photo: Hyundai

So, despite what some people would have you think, most automotive recalls aren’t that big of a deal. They are the inevitable result of thousands of people working on a design with many thousands of parts and then asking thousands of other humans and robots to build it. Of course, if a recall is performed and then that recall causes another recall, that’s a different story.

Unfortunately for owners of Hyundai’s 2017 and 2018 Ioniq Hybrid and PHEV, that’s the situation they find themselves in, although it seems the problems at work here are enough to ignite Hyundai’s ass (you’ll understand , why this is funny in a minute). The recall specifically stems from a faulty relay in the car’s power relay assembly, which was originally recalled because it had bad connections that could cause increased resistance and therefore a lot of heat. A bunch of heat could cause things to catch fire, and car fires are bad, especially hybrids and electric vehicles.

The solution to this first recall, which occurred in 2018, was simple and was to replace just the main relay if no damage was found, or replace the entire power relay assembly if something was overcooked. That didn’t work, however, because now 10,575 owners of affected vehicles are being called back to their cars with the same issue over fears their back seat could catch fire (there’s the joke payout!).

The resolution for this recall is the same as the resolution for the last one and, like all recall work, it will be performed by your dealer at no cost. Owners of affected vehicles can expect to receive a notification in the mail on or around August 26th. In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can contact Hyundai’s Customer Service Department at 1-855-371-9460 and reference number 232.

Canadian midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye was acquired from Toronto FC by the Colorado Rapids on Friday at a hefty price.

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In exchange for the 27-year-old athlete, the Reds released young midfielder Ralph Priso, an international player berth for 2023, a first-round pick in that year’s SuperDraft, and an allotment total upwards to $1.03 million.

Both clubs also keep a percentage of the resale amount of the two players.

Kaye, originally from Toronto, wore the Ontario team’s jersey in the junior ranks from 2013-14 before joining Toronto FC II in 2015. However, he made his Major League Soccer (MLS) debut with Los Angeles FC, whose colors he defended from 2018 to 2021.

“We are extremely excited to add Mark to our team,” head coach Bob Bradley said in a statement. Over the past five seasons, Mark has established himself as one of the best midfielders in the league. He is an intelligent player who likes to be on the ball, a good passer, ball returner, competitor and teammate.

With the Rapids this season, Kaye has three goals and one assist in 17 games, including 15 starts.

He also made 36 appearances for Canada and helped the country qualify for the 2022 World Cup earlier this year.

Toronto FC continue their roster overhaul after former MLS MVP Alejandro Pozuelo joined Inter Miami CF. It also hosted Italians Lorenzo Insigne and Domenico Criscito in July.

Photo: Cari Rubin Photography (Shutterstock)

Amazon really wants you to buy something next week. Less a holiday or sell-off than a collective mass hysteria, this year’s Prime Day takes place on July 12-13, and the mega-retailer doesn’t just create the illusion, it’s slashing prices on thousands of products (the which you probably don’t need), it also offers free money (in the form of credits that can only be spent on Amazon) in exchange for jumping through some digital hoops. If you’re buying stuff anyway and not taking advantage of these promotions, that leaves Amazon’s money on the table, and you should snatch as much of their dirty profit as possible.

Below is every Amazon credit promotion I could find, along with a little bit about how they work and how much credit you can get by using them. Caveat: Amazon is a big company so I may have missed some promotions. If so, leave them in the comments so we can all benefit.

Download the Amazon shopping app and order for $5 for the first time

That probably won’t apply to you – I know it didn’t apply to me – but if somehow you’ve never installed the Amazon Shopping app and ordered something on your phone before, now is the time to do it. The first time you install the app and make a purchase, you’ll get a $5 discount off your next purchase as long as it’s more than $10. Here are the terms and conditions.

Free money count: $5

Complete Amazon Prime Stampcard for $10

Amazon’s “Prime Stampcard” promotion gives people $10 worth of Amazon credit for completing four Amazon-related tasks – it’s like a scavenger hunt, but more annoying. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, gives you until July 13 to:

• Make a Prime eligible purchase
• Stream a show on Prime Video
• Listen to a song on Amazon Music Prime
• Borrow an e-book on Prime Reading

You’ll need to download the free Kindle app to borrow a book (unless you own a Kindle) and subscribe to Amazon Music Prime to hear the song, but as long as you cancel the music subscription before the free week is up, it’s fine will cost nothing.

Free money count: $15

Take advantage of Prime Day promotions for $42 (give or take)

In addition to short-term bargains, Amazon is offering time-critical free credit campaigns on Prime Day. Right now there’s $42 total available for things like buying a ticket for the Elvis movie or checking out Amazon Affirm on Prime Day, but keep an eye out for promotions to add and subtract as we get closer to Prime Day . However, you might as well benefit from a potential $2 reward just for clicking this link to Amazon’s “Affirm” page.

Free sum of money: $57

Choose unrushed shipping for $1.50 per order

When you checkout after a qualifying purchase shipped through Amazon Prime, you can save $1.50 by clicking the No Hurry option. This credit will either apply to your current purchase or appear as a credit in your account.

Free sum of money: $58.50

Join Amazon’s Buyer Panel for $10 per month

If you don’t mind sharing the details of your non-Amazon purchases with Amazon, you can join the company’s Shopper Panel program and earn $10 every month. Amazon says it’s “by invitation only” and requires scanning and uploading 10 retail receipts per month to the company. So if you want to put in a little work to help Amazon with market research, do it. (I suggest you confuse the system by only submitting receipts for butt plugs and hair extensions.) If you weren’t invited, you can download the app (iOS, Google Play) and wait to be chosen. In the meantime, start buying butt plugs.

Free sum of money: $68.50

Reload an Amazon gift card for $10

Eligible Amazon users can get $10 when they “load” at least $100 onto an Amazon gift card. Amazon doesn’t make it easy (or seemingly possible) to know who’s eligible before you review it, but if you’re logged into Amazon and click this link, you’ll get your verdict. (Sorry, I’m not authorized.)

Amazon often offers credit for purchasing gift cards (which you can send to yourself) and entering certain promotional codes, but the codes appear to only work for a limited time, and it’s not clear which codes are current. Amazon is a mysterious and capricious god.

Free sum of money: $78.50

Discounted Prime membership for students and others

Amazon Prime membership gives you free shipping on many Amazon items and access to Prime Video’s vast selection of movies and TV shows for $14.99 per month or $139 per year (worth it for the beach party selection alone films from the mid-1960s). If you’re an eligible student or receive EBT or other government benefits, Prime will only cost you $7.49 and $6.99, respectively. Be sure to take advantage if you qualify – although we don’t include that in the count.

Total potential free Amazon credits: $78.50

There you have it: If you take advantage of any of the credit promotions here, you could have $78.50 on Amazon Prime Day. But remember: Amazon offers so many types of “free credit” promotions with limited availability windows. With invitation-only status and unclear eligibility requirements, it’s difficult to know exactly how many will apply to you – so my apologies if these offers end between the time this post is published and the time you read it .