Following on this post from last week regarding this year’s compromise over the dubious Wright Amendment, this Fort Worth Star-Telegram article reports that American Airlines will move some of its planes to Love Field to compete with Southwest Airlines’ new flights to St. Louis and Kansas City. Those are the two new interstate destinations that can now be flown to out of Love Field as a result of this year’s modification of the Wright Amendment.
According to the article, American rationalizes the move by noting that many of its best customers in Dallas prefer Loveís closer-in location. But how many of those Highland Park-types are going to be going to Kansas City and St. Louis? I could understand American’s move if Love Field had been opened up to fly into New York or Los Angeles, but not St. Louis and Kansas City. This appears to be a money-losing move for the indirect purpose of keeping the Wright Amendment in place and, from my vantage point, that is the type of decision that has had American tailing Southwest financially over the past several years.
Update: Virginia Postrel, who has written extensively on the folly of the Wright Amendment, weighs in here.

Boston Scientific Corp made a bid to become the largest heart device maker in the U.S. by making a $25 billion competing offer for Guidant Corp yesterday in an attempt to derail a troubled lower-price agreement between Guidant and Johnson & Johnson (earlier posts on the J&J bid for Guidant are here).
Boston Scientific’s offer consists of $12.5 billion in cash and $12.5 billion in stock, values Guidant stock at $72 per share and would have Boston Scientific’s shareholders owning 65% of the combined company. That represents a premium of 14% over the J&J offer, which values Guidant at $63.43 a share. The theory behind the Boston Scientific proposal is that a combined Boston Scientific and Guidant would become the leading U.S. company specializing in cardiac rhythm management (“CRM”) equipment, which includes pacemakers and heart defibrillators that control rapid and potentially deadly heartbeats. In so doing, the Boston Scientific-Guidant alliance would attempt to become the primary company that doctors would look to for equipment and products to treat a wide range of cardiovascular ailments. Guidant’s board is expected to evaluate in the next day or two whether Boston Scientific’s proposal could lead to an offer superior to J&J’s, which includes a $625 million breakup fee that Boston Scientific would have to pay J&J if Guidant accepts the Boston Scientific bid.

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