Private-equity firms buys Clear Channel

[flashl]

DOJ Says Clear Channel Must Sell 4 Radio Stations

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday it would require radio station company Clear Channel Communications Inc. (CCU) to sell stations in four cities in order to win approval for its sale to two private-equity houses.

In a statement, the Department of Justice's antitrust division said it would approve the deal taking the nation's largest owner of radio stations private with the condition that the stations were sold within 90 days of its closing.

Clear Channel is being bought by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, two private-equity firms, in a complicated $19.5 billion transaction.

The Department of Justice approval is the last regulatory hurdle to the Clear Channel sale being concluded. It earlier won conditional approval from the Federal Communications Commission, again with the obligation to sell or divest management control of some stations first.

The four markets where the Department of Justice said Clear Channel must sell stations are Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

CNN Money

Why isn't Congress involved?

[ixion]

this doesn't make any sense... it was okay for clear channel to own these, but if

they want to sell, they have to dump some stations? :wtf:

If it's not okay for private equity firms to own them, it wasn't okay for clear channel to do so. I smell a rat.

[Warpy]

2. My guess is that the private equite firm already owns media outlets

in those cities and that owning the Clear Channel stations would give them a clear monopoly.

That's the rat I smell.

It would be good if they fired all those come-to-Jebus Republic types in Clear Channel's management. The programming would improve immensely and Lamebawl would have to scramble for syndication outlets.

In any case, the programming can only improve. Clear Channel sucks.

[Ian David]

1. Bain Capital = Mitt Ronmney and his Iranian friends.

Boycott Dunkin Donuts and Kay Bee Toys.