Clear Channel Board Accepts Raised Offer (Sold!!)

[Breeze54]

Clear Channel Board Accepts Raised Offer


By MICHELLE ROBERTS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
May 18, 2007 5:10 PM EDT

SAN ANTONIO -

The board of Clear Channel Communications Inc. on Friday accepted an offer from private equity buyers
with a slightly higher price and a rare opportunity for shareholders to continue owning a stake in the
radio and billboard company even after it goes private.

The board and the buyer's group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Bain Capital Partners LLC have
faced stiff resistance from several large shareholders who didn't think earlier offers were enough.

The new offer of $39.20 per share, or about $19.45 billion, was initially rejected by the board two weeks ago.
The board approved the deal once the private equity partners agreed to allow shareholders to own shares
in the new company with the same benefits as the equity firms.

The buyer's group is also assuming $8 billion in debt.

A shareholder vote on the new deal has not yet been scheduled, but analysts believe the offer will win over the holdouts.

"This seems like an outcome that satisfies everyone," said Stanford Group analyst Fred Moran.

"To us, this looks like a done deal."

snip-->

"Someone buying out a public company expects to make a lot of money and the public stockholders
want a little piece of that action before they'll go along so they don't feel like chumps,"
Hamermesh said.

Clear Channel is the nation's largest radio-station operator, and it owns 90 percent of a billboard business
that is the world's largest, with 973,000 signs.

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On the Net:

Clear Channel: http://www.clearchannel.com

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I wonder if this will change the way CC is run, as a company.

[3waygeek]

1. My guess is not...

remember that Bain Capital was founded by Mitt Romney among others, so I suspect CC will remain firmly in the clutches of the right-wing.

[Breeze54]

4. Romney???

I didn't know that! Thanks for the info!

That answers my question then! It can only get worse, if that's the case.

[rurallib]

8. Most CC stations that carried AAR flipped last fall

when the original deal with Bain Capital was announced. Believe it or not CC was the major carrier of AAR around the country. With 1250 stations it is hard to find content. You just can't have 5 stations in the same city carrying Rushie. But just the rumor of a sale caused CC to dumpp AAR like a hot potato.

[Breeze54]

11. I remember when AAR was with CC....

And now they're (AAR) gone from MA radio too. :grr:

[Cerridwen]

2. Psst. Bain Capital was founded by Mitt Romney.

Different hands, same agenda?

[Bombero1956]

3. Bain again?

Mitt Romney's company trying to buy up the airwaves too? Nothing much will change. Just another Repug venture capitalist dirtbag.

[Horse with no Name]

9. Imagine that

A Presidential candidate that owns the airwaves.
I wonder whose messages will make it through and whose won't.
This ought to be illegal on those grounds alone.

[dave29]

5. Mitt Romney started Bain.

Bain Capital LLC is a Boston, Massachusetts-based private equity firm founded in 1984 by Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts, and two other partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company: T. Coleman Andrews III and Eric Kriss. Bain Capital was originally conceived as a combined equity start-up and leveraged buyout fund, an innovative strategy at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_Capital

I think you can see where this is headed.

[Breeze54]

6. That explains a lot!!!!!

Mitt the Shit gave a speech at the statehouse and behind him had a HUGE sign saying Clear Channel.
But at the time, as pissed about that as I was, I didn't know he had a stake in it!!

Isn't that illegal, then?? That he advertised HIS company on the statehouse building??

What a lowlife creep!! :grr:

[patricia92243]

7. I am soooo glad that I am now retired an out of radio. Clear Channel owns one of the stations that

I worked at - just what is needed ANOTHER set of buyers. The particular station that I worked for has been sold about 10 time before Clear Channel. So glad it's not me.

[Breeze54]

10. I'll bet you are!

[otohara]

12. Me Too

Right before I quit one job, it was announced the then Jacor bought our stations (the day after Clinton signed 96 Telecommunications Act) Then my last job was the last big purchase and newly named Clear Channel bought that group of stations. My lawsuit ended up being against CCU because of the purchase. Man do they have nasty ass attorneys.