Eastern Airlines Shareholders Approve Merger With Texas Air
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NEW YORK — Eastern Airlines shareholders approved the $676-million merger with Texas Air Corp. by a 70% margin, Eastern officials announced today.
The announcement came as a special shareholders’ meeting ended abruptly after turning into a shouting match among many stock owners.
The meeting took place the day after a federal judge in Miami refused a request by a coalition of Eastern Airlines unions seeking to block a count of votes on the merger. The coalition had offered to buy the beleaguered carrier in a cash deal.
About 200 angry shareholders, many of them Eastern employees, jammed the special meeting. Many demanded to know why Texas Air Chairman Frank A. Lorenzo, who was elected Eastern’s chairman last month, was not present.
Without directly responding to their questions, Richard P. Magurno, senior vice president for legal affairs and chairman of the meeting, assured stockholders that the company’s bylaws permit a special meeting without the company’s chief executives present.
The vote of shareholders was the last step in the Texas Air-Eastern deal, which has government approval.
David Butler, a spokesman for the union coalition, said it will pursue its lawsuit claiming that the Texas Air deal was illegal because Eastern’s board did not consider the employee buyout offer.
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