	ual ual may respond to pilots today ual inc may have a response this afternoon to the pilots union proposal to buy its united airlines unit a ual spokesman said obviously we have a lot of movement in our stock and we need to get a clarification out the spokesman said adding that there was a chance a statement would be released today the pilots earlier this week offered to buy the airline for billion dlrs and assume billion dlrs of existing debt takeover speculation has driven ual s stock for several weeks ual last month said new york real estate developer donald trump held a position in its stock and that he also held discussions with its chairman the developer indicated in those talks that he took the position as an investment but he revealed no other plans today rumors circulated that coniston partners were buying ual stock ual jumped five to on volume of more than mln shares united has got to consider this proposal i think the pilot s proposal is realistic i don t exptect them to take it but it could put some interesting options in front of ual management said timothy pettee bear stearns and co analyst analysts have said ual made itself vulnerable to attack when it diversified away from its core airline it added hertz rental cars westin and hilton international hotels in a strategy to become a travel service company the strategy left its stock in a slump and its pilots union concerned that the company was not focussing enough attention on its airline ual has stood firm on its strategy it is emphasizing its new focus by changing its name to allegis as of may one but takeover speculation has escalated and wall street has been busy calculating break up values well in excess of dlrs per share traders today described the buying in ual as widespread indicative to them that big institutions believe the stock is in play market sources have said that although trump attracted attention to the stock the pilots proposal acted as a catalyst kicking off a new round of speculation and perhaps throwing the company into the hands of another buyer the first domino is you have an investor with a considerable stake the second domino is the union that type of attitude has been a precursor to airline deals in the past said pettee what s interesting is the values are there there s something for everybody he said reuter 
