Clear Channel Could Get Buyout Offers of $18 Billion
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Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest American radio broadcaster, may receive at least two competing takeover offers later today from leveraged buyout groups that value the company at about $18 billion, two people with knowledge of the bids said.
Blackstone Group LP, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and Providence Equity Partners Inc. plan to submit a proposal, said the people, who declined to be identified because the bids are secret. Bain Capital LLC plans to make an offer with Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP, they said.
Clear Channel’s board, which includes three members of the founding Mays family, put the San Antoniobased company up for auction last month after asset sales and share buybacks failed to boost the stock price. Clear Channel has lost more than 60% of its market value since the stock peaked in 2000 as radio stations lose advertising revenue to the Internet and satellite competitors.
“LBO firms are interested in Clear Channel because the stock price reflects the attack of the Internet and other media, and Clear Channel has made the necessary adjustments to succeed long term,” a analyst at Stanford Group, Fred Moran, said.