In addition to acquiring Frontier last year, Global Crossing bought the cable installer Global Marine Systems and Racal Telecom of Britain.

Back in May, when Global Crossing first announced its intent to merge with U S West - even as Global had a pending deal to also acquire Frontier - Wall Street was not enthusiastic.

On December 1, 2011, Adobe announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Efficient Frontier.

Global Crossing acquired Frontier in 1999, and Citizens Communications acquired Global Crossing's Frontier assets in 2001, and has owned it since.

Until 2009 when Republic acquired Midwest and Frontier, all of its planes flew in the colors of other airlines through code share agreements.

People Express Airlines (PEOPLExpress) acquired Frontier on October 5, 1985 and put Larry Martin in charge after Joe O'Gorman resigned on January 29, 1986.

The details are somewhat tawdry, but the point is that from Frontier's perspective, Qwest failed to negotiate in good faith after making a public bid to acquire Frontier for more than Global Crossing had offered.

U S West's earlier deal with Global Crossing was contingent on Global Crossing's also acquiring Frontier.

As Republic Airways Holdings was in the process of bidding to acquire Frontier in 2009, it was also in the process of acquiring Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines.

Originally, the two rivals had each hoped to acquire both U S West and Frontier.