Its Over – The Germans Own The British. A German Virgin next?

So with a whimper BMI falls to LH. Sir Michael decided in the end not to fight it and exercised his option to sell his 50% share to LH who already owned 20%. I wanted to get this story out when I got wind of it over the weekend but sadly – no access to my blog. Oh well. He cashed out his chips

So while the other suitors have been banished – BMI has now fallen. This changes the landscape and allows the cards to fall one particular way. Lets deal with this in 2 parts. First the bigger picture.

So Star now looks like a German network. The chances are that SK’s sale to LH of its BD shares will buy it sometime but SK is looking very shaky at the moment. Look for even closer ties and a potential sale of the Scandinavians to the Germans. Should this happen – the Austrian Government would have no option other than to submit to LH’s outrageous 1 cent a share offer. This would make AZ have to go to AF/KL and BA’s IB+AA deal go through. The only dance cards with no players – Aer Lingus and TAP. But wait there is more. And what of the USA? Given United’s weak position now a 3rd US based Star member (Continental) and LH’s relationship with JetBlue – could that be a sign as well? Will Star actually dump UAL as its second dumpee (remember it dumped Varig).

So let’s go back to Bishop’s soon to be former Baby. Virgin stepped into the fray and said that VS would like to consider a tie up now that the LH-BD deal is done. Logical. They wanted to combine BD and VS but now the issue is moot. The logic of the relationship is still there so VS called a spade and spade and said how about a mega tie up between the brand king and the German Dreadnought.

Hello is anyone awake in Brussels?