	twa twa tangles piedmont pie situation trans world airlines inc complicated the bidding for piedmont aviation inc by offering either to buy piedmont suitor usair group or alternatively to merge with piedmont and usair piedmont s board was meeting today and wall street speculated the board was discussing opposing bids from norfolk southern corp and usair the twa offer was announced shortly after the piedmont board meeting was scheduled to begin twa offered to buy usair for dlrs cash per share it also said it was the largest shareholder of usair and threatened to go directly to usair shareholders with an offer for pct of the stock at a lower price twa also said it believed its offer was a better deal for usair shareholders than an uisition of piedmont but it said it alternatively would discuss a three way combination of the airlines market sources and analysts speculated that twa chairman carl icahn made the offer in order to put his own airline into the takeover arena we re just wondering if he s not just trying to get twa into play there s speculation on the street he just wants to move onto somthing else said one arbitrager we think twa might just be putting up a trial balloon analysts said the offer must be taken seriously by usair but that the airline will probably reject it because the price is relatively low compared to other airline deals they also said icahn must prove his offer credible by revealing financing arrangements they need to show their commitment and their ability to finance i think it s a credible offer said timothy pettee a bear stearns analyst i think it s certainly on the low end of relative values of airline deals said pettee pettee estimated dlrs would be in a more reasonable range based on other airline mergers usair stock soared after twa made public its offer a spokesman for usair declined comment and said usair had not changed its offer for piedmont usair offered of buy pct of that airline s stock for dlrs cash per share and the balance for dlrs per share in usair stock usair closed up at on volume of mln shares piedmont which slipped to close at also remained silent on the twa action piedmont has an outstanding dlr cash per share offer from norfolk southern corp norfolk southern declined comment but said it stuck with its offer for piedmont norfolk owns about pct of piedmont and opened the bidding when it said it would propose a takeover of piedmont some analysts said icahn may be trying to uire usair to make his own airline a more attractive takeover target icahn i think had wanted to sell his airline and there were no takers i think the strategy might have called for making his investment more attractive one way to accomplish that specific objective is to go out and uire other airlines said andrew kim of eberstadt fleming i don t know whose going to buy them but at least this way it becomes a much more viable package said kim but icahn s financing ability for such a transaction remains in doubt in part because of twa s heavy debt load wall street sources said twa has some cash with which to do the offer the sources said icahn has not lined up outside financial advisers and plans to make his own arrangements icahn earlier this year abandoned plans to buy usx corp x and still retains pct of that company s stock some wall street sources said the financier s usx plan was impacted by the cloud hanging over his adviser drexel burnham lambert inc because of wall street s insider trading scandal industry sources also predicted usair might reject the twa offer on price and financing concerns it s littered with contingencies and it doesn t even have a financing arrangement said one executive at another major airline but the executive conceded a merged twa usair would be a strong contender with usair s east coast route system and planned west coast presence from psa usair could feed the intenrational flights of twa which has a midwest presence in its st louis hub adding piedmont dominant in the southeast to the mix would develop an even stronger force the combined entity would also have twa s pars reservation system such a merger would be complex and analysts said it would result in an airline iwth an pct market share reuter 
