Clear Channel all but confirms buyout talks

[CatWoman]

Private equity groups Providence Equity Partners, Blackstone Group and Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. are in advanced discussions to buy the largest U.S. radio company, Clear Channel Communications Inc., a source familiar with the situation said Wednesday.

Clear Channel, which has more than 1,200 stations, earlier on Wednesday had responded to reports that it was considering offers to be taken private by saying it had hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to help it evaluate strategic options.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-clear26oct26,1,6239636.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

[opihimoimoi]

1. What is it with these guys??? They keep amassing POWER?

[asthmaticeog]

3. Actually this could have the opposite effect.

When investment groups purchase large media hldings, they tend to divest the less-profitable properties. The newly merged Village Voice Media/New Times weekly newspaper company is poised to prove this within the next couple of years, some of those papers are hemorrhaging money, and the new investors aren't likely to wait and see if Seattle Weekly, SFWeekly and Cleveland Scene will ever become winners. Any divesture of CC radio properties is likely to be a good thing. While some of the stations will surely go to competing megamedia companies, some, especially those in small one- or two-station towns, could very well return to local ownership. CC has already merged its concert promotions arm with LiveNation, which, though it's also national and centrally-owned, is non-centrally controlled by long time players with deep roots in their local markets, which, combined with the radio sale, effectively destroys the music industry integration they've weilded like a cudgel. Time will tell, of course, but given the way such aquisitions often go, it's not really time to cry about the sky falling just yet.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Thank you....I guess the jury is still out....

[CatWoman]

5. Opi!!!

good to see you!! :hi:

[opihimoimoi]

6. Aloha Kakahiaka, Catwoman,

Gut Morgen....

Opps, Good Morning

Love that :hi:

[madmusic]

2. So, are the buyers wingnuts too?

Or will Clear Channel actually become "Fair and Balance"?