Hello again no one has responded to my last post...maybe I'll have more luck with this one.

I was skimming through the New York Times online and came across the article I pasted below. I'm curious as to what all of your views are on this issue. From previous posts I see that Carnival is not the most preferred line...



P&O Princess setting sail for Carnival

By Luisa Beltran, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 1:15 PM ET Jan. 3, 2003

MIAMI (CBS.MW) -- P&O Princess Cruises may finally set sail for Carnival Corp. this spring, culminating Carnival's year-long bid to acquire the No. 3 global cruise operator.

By Jan. 10, the board of P&O Princess is expected to issue a formal recommendation to shareholders approving Carnival's $5.3 billion proposal.

Earlier this week, P&O Princess and former suitor Royal Caribbean Cruises terminated their southern European joint venture. Princess had earlier announced that it would let the venture die when it decided to pursue a deal with Carnival Corp., spurning a prior merger agreement with Royal Caribbean.

The long-awaited Princess-Carnival merger still needs to pass a few obstacles, including securing approval from Securities and Exchange Commission.

An SEC decision, on the dual-listing structure of the Carnival-Princess merger, is expected in two months, Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said.

If the SEC approves the merger, shareholders for each company would then vote on the transaction. Pending shareholder approval, "we expect to close in mid-April," Gallagher said.

Market leader Carnival (CCL: news, chart,profile) and crosstown Miami rival Royal Caribbean (RCL: news, chart, profile) had been locked in a bidding war for London-based P&O Princess (POC: news, chart, profile) for over a year.

In November 2001, P&O Princess agreed to a merger valued at $3.7 billion with Royal Caribbean. The following month, Carnival made a $4.5 billion counteroffer, which was rejected even after it was sweetened several times.

Last October, the Federal Trade Commission said it would allow either Carnival or Royal Caribbean to pursue competing bids for P&O Princess.

In light of the FTC's decision, P&O Princess in late October ended its no-compromise posture and said it would consider Carnival's offer.

Terms of Carnival's bid, now valued at $5.3 billion, calls for the formation of a dual-listed company in which each P&O Princess shareholder would trade in their stock for 0.3004 of a Carnival share. The dual-listed company is intended to allow P&O and Carnival to retain stock listings in the U.S. and U.K.

Each Princess shareholder would have equal value, equal voting priveleges and equal dividends as Carnival shareholders, Gallagher said.

Shares of P&O Princess gained 35 cents to $28.47 in recent trading Friday. Carnival eased 3 cents to $25.60, while Royal Caribbean lost 23 cents to $17.56.

Jay, it remains to be seen, but in the past Carnival has had a pretty good history of allowing the other cruise lines it owns to be managed completely separately. We are all hoping the same will be true of Princess. I don't know if you are aware of this, but Carnival already owns Holland America, Windstar, and even Cunard, to name a few, and you can judge from reviews of each one how well that has gone. All we can do is hope for the best, but I don't think there is as big a problem as you might think.

Additional comment: FYI, I personally think Carnival does a pretty good job, and doesn't deserve the bad raps you have seen on this forum. To each his own...
Karen

Thank you for responding Karen. I was not aware that Carnival owned Holland America.

It will be interesting to see how "The Worlds Leading Cruise Lines" integrates P&O Princess into their stable of cruise lines (which currently include Carnival, Costa, Holland America (and its subsidiary, Windstar) Cunard (and its subsidiary, Seabourn). Both Holland and Princess have a strong hold on Alaska Tours. Will they keep them doubled up?? Plus, many princess ships also sail under the P&O Line in Europe and Australia. I wonder did carnival get the whole P&O Stable, if so, that would be a heck of a cruise line (See P&OCruises.com to see just how large they are, cruises in europe, several different cruise lines, including a dual market line in Germany, they are quite large). We shall see how it all shakes out. But, this is not good news for little guys like Star/Norwegian.

Carnival did indeed get P&O Princess - it's to be a dual-listed company, each with their own management etc. Incidentally, Colin Veitch, CEO of NCL, made the comment that Norwegian is looking forward now to being #3! I'm sure it was tongue in cheek, but it will leave NCL in the 3rd spot as far as cruise line size goes.