AirTran Holdings () was a Nevada corporation, based in Orlando, Florida, United States, that operated as an airline holding company. Its primary asset was AirTran Airways until Southwest Airlines acquired AirTran on May 2, 2011. History After the large amount of negative publicity surrounding the Flight 592 disaster, ValuJet Airlines suffered serious financial problems. On July 10, 1997, ValuJet announced it would merge with the much smaller Airways Corporation, the owner of Orlando, Florida based AirTran Airways. In November 1997, AirTran Holdings announced it would move its headquarters to Airways' existing headquarters in Orlando from Atlanta; on November 17, 1997, Airways Corporation and ValuJet completed their merger and the name ValuJet was dropped. On January 11, 1999, Joseph Leonard was elected as the chairman, president and chief executive officer of the company. On August 15, 2001, AirTran stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Proposed AirTran Holding acquisition of Midwest Air Group In December 2006, AirTran Holdings made public that in December 2005 it had approached the board of directors of Midwest Air Group—owner of Midwest Airlines and Skyway Airlines which operates as Midwest Connect—and had asked the board negotiate a sale of the company. That AirTran offer in 2005 was rebuffed by Midwest's board, which also rebuffed a second offer in late 2006. In December 2006, AirTran disclosed the rejection of both offers in hopes of bringing shareholder pressure on Midwest's board to reconsider, which the board recommended that shareholders reject. On December 13, 2006, AirTran announced that it had made an offer to acquire Midwest Airlines, another operator of the Boeing 717. The offer has since been rejected by the Midwest board. On January 11, 2007, AirTran sweetened its offer for Midwest to $13.25 a share from $11.25 a share, valued at US$290 million, or a 24% premium over Midwest's trading price at the time, and AirTran took its renewed bid directly to Midwest shareholders, bypassing Midwest's board of directors; with an offer that expires on April 11, 2007. On April 2, 2007 AirTran raised its bid to $15 a share, in what CEO Joe Leonard called AirTran's final bid. In response to AirTran's overtures, Midwest Air Group has stated publicly that it believes that it can maximize shareholder value as a stand-alone company. Midwest Air Group has said that the latest AirTran proposal rejected by its board of directors significantly undervalued Midwest and did not