Is JetBlue for sale? Will anyone buy it if it is?

When David Neeleman stepped down as CEO of JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU), the company he founded, the stock rallied. Some speculate that with Neeleman no longer in charge, the airline could be for sale. While anything is possible, I wouldn't get too excited, for a whole bunch of reasons.

First of all, Neeleman is only resigning as CEO. He will stay on as chairman and owns about 6% of the company. So if he doesn't want the company sold, it still probably won't happen. And even if he does, there's still the problem of finding a buyer. While the shares are beaten down, they're still not that cheap by any metric that I can see.

And then there's the reputation of the airline industry. As billionaire Richard Branson has said, "The fastest way to become a millionaire is to start off a billionaire and then buy an airline." Most of the major airlines are emerging from bankruptcy and are probably in no rush to take on a huge amount of debt buying JetBlue.

So while takeover speculation might be fun, it just doesn't really seem justified here.