Clear Channel And Private Equity Firms

Source: news.yahoo.com --- 44 days ago
Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s planned $19 billion buyout by Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Bain Capital Partners may be close to collapsing, at least according to one media report. (CCU) ...

Source: news.google.com --- 85 days ago
AFP Clear Channel Sale Approved By Department of Justice Wall Street Journal - 1 hour ago By Department of Justice By SARAH MCBRIDE The Department of Justice approved Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s $19.3 billion sale to Private Equity Firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, on the condition that it sell six radio stations in ... UPDATE: DOJ Says Clear Channel Must Sell 4 Radio Stations CNNMoney.com UPDATE 1-Buyout of Clear Channel gets US antitrust approval Reuters The Associated Press  - AFP  - Streaming Magazine  - New York Times all 135 news articles ...

Source: www.iht.com --- 86 days ago
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday allowed two Private-Equity Firms to go ahead with a $19.5 billion (€13.4 billion) buyout of Clear Channel Communications, the largest operator of radio stations in the United States. ...

Source: blogs.reuters.com --- 14 days ago
The Clear Channel Communications court hearing on Thursday brought no resolution to the battle over the $20 billion buyout of the radio station operator, but it did provide some heated words and enlightening emails. Private Equity Firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners sued the banks — Citigroup Inc, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group, [...] ...

Source: money.cnn.com --- 43 days ago
Clear Channel Communications Inc. and the Private Equity Firms seeking to close a $19.5 billion buyout of the company have sued their lenders. ...

Source: www.nytimes.com --- 38 days ago
Two Private Equity Firms are suing a group of six banks to force completion of the pending $20 billion buyout of Clear Channel. ...

Source: www.reuters.com --- 36 days ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Clear Channel Communications Inc and the Private Equity Firms trying to buy the U.S. radio operator won a legal victory on Wednesday when a federal judge sent a case they filed against six banks back to a Texas state court. ...

Source: www.moreover.com --- 13 days ago
NEW YORK - A New York judge on Friday agreed to keep Clear Channel Communications Inc. out of a New York lawsuit concerning its stalled $19.5 billion buyout by a group of Private-Equity Firms. ...

Source: www.washingtonpost.com --- 38 days ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Radio operator Clear Channel Communications Inc and the Private Equity Firms trying to buy it asked on Tuesday for their lawsuit against six banks to be sent back to Texas State Court to be heard. ...

Source: blogs.wsj.com --- 17 days ago
The banks involved in the buyout of Clear Channel Communications have offered to enter binding arbitration with Private-Equity Firms Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital Partners to resolve their dispute about funding the $19.4 billion deal. In a letter delivered to the Private-Equity Firms and Clear Channel, the banks said they were prepared to submit [...] ...

Source: online.wsj.com --- 17 days ago
Private-Equity Firms Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital Partners rejected an offer from the six banks involved in the buyout of Clear Channel to enter into binding arbitration to resolve their dispute about funding the $19.4 billion deal. ...

Source: blogs.wsj.com --- 20 days ago
Whatever you say about the law Firms, banks and Private Equity Firms involved in the Clear Channel case, you can’t call them lazy. The industrious lawyers have produced dense, delicious pleadings for legal wonks and the many people out there obsessed with the play-by-play for the contentious $19.4 billion buyout led by Thomas H. Lee [...] ...

Source: www.bostonherald.com --- 86 days ago
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Wednesday allowed two Boston-based Private-Equity Firms to go ahead with a $19.5 billion buyout of Clear Channel Communications, the... ...

Source: seekingalpha.com --- 16 days ago
Prince of Wall Street submits: "This proposal is yet another disingenuous attempt by the banks to avoid living up to their commitments. The banks want to move this case into the back room because they fear that a public trial will clearly expose their misconduct," the Private Equity Firms said in a statement. Sounds like fighting words to the Prince. The Prince has stayed on the sidelines on the Clear Channel (CCU) dispute until this point. The buyout Firms’ quick rejection of the arbitration offer from the syndicate of banks prove once again the Prince’s earlier argument (Wall Street’s Short Memory on Private Equity) about how much leverage sponsors have when it comes to negotiations on committed financings. If a group of financial sponsors wants to get get a deal done then they have very few incentives to give concessions to the banks that committed financing. The fact is the banks and the Private Equity Firms are essentially engaged in a continuous multi-decision game and have relationships that negotiations will test. However, given the short memory of Wall Street, it is unlikely that any buyout firm will see real repercussions in the future if it forces the banks to honor their commitments. Provided the Private Equity firm has capital in the future to invest The Prince guarantees that there will be bankers willing to forget the past to get a deal done. Any banker threatening in committed financing negotiations t ...

Source: seekingalpha.com --- 15 days ago
R.I.P. Bond Rally. The yield on two-year notes (2.34%) overtook the fed-funds target rate of 2.25% this morning for the first time since 2004. "This could be the watershed, the inflection moment we’ve been waiting for," Morgan Stanley strategist George Concalves says. "We’ve been so tightly wound up in rates because of strong flight-to-quality flows, which was justified cause people trying to figure out where the problems were with the banks. Now, we’ve seen that come off." Comcast wades into wireless. Comcast (CMCSA) hired Save Williams, former CTO of Telefonica O2 Europe, to "explore wireless options" for the company. Sources think Comcast is weighing its quadruple play options (TV, internet, wireless and voice), and that it may consider a partnership with Sprint-Nextel (S) and Clearwire (CLWR) over WiMAX. Wall Street banks committed to funding a $22B Private-Equity buyout of Clear Channel Communications (CCU) are scheming to renege on the deal by offering terms "they know the [Firms] won't be able to accept." To hedge or not to hedge. Airlines Q1 earnings were clobbered by soaring oil prices, with the notable exception of Southwest Airlines (LUV), which managed to turn a small-but-respectable profit to the credit of its aggressive fuel-price hedging. (Continental Airlines (CAL) hedged just 22% of its Q1 costs, Delta Air Lines (DAL) hedged 27%, and UAL (UAUA) hedged 30%. Southwest has hedged 70% o ...

Source: www.charlotte.com --- 34 days ago
Charlotte-based Wachovia Corp. and five other banks sued Clear Channel Communications Inc. a week after Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP sued the banks for refusing to fund their $19.5 billion purchase of the radio broadcaster.The banks, suing in New York state court, stand to lose at least $2.7 billion because loan prices have fallen since they agreed to finance the transaction last April. The banks that filed a countersuit Friday are Wachovia, Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. Deutsche Bank AG filed a separate countersuit, said Tom Johnson, a spokesman for the banks. Bain and Thomas H. Lee were granted a request Thursday by New York Supreme Court Judge Helen Freedman in Manhattan for a May 5 trial over claims that the banks reneged on funding the deal. Bain and Thomas H. Lee, both based in Boston, claimed the banks breached their funding commitments. Clear Channel joined the Private-Equity Firms in the suit filed in Texas state court in San Antonio, where the company is based. -- bloomberg news TIAA-CREF names chief executive Pension giant TIAA-CREF, which has a major Charlotte presence, named former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman Roger Ferguson chief executive, effective April 14. Ferguson, most recently head of financial services at Swiss Re, replaces Herbert Allison, who is retiring. New York-based TIAA-CREF, formally know as the Teachers Insura ...

Source: www.paidcontent.org --- 17 days ago
The acquisition of Clear Channel ( NYSE: CCU ) by two Private Equity Firms, Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital Partners, continues to play out in the courts. The key issue, as you'll recall: the banks have been looking for a way out of their massive funding obligations, while THL and Bain seek to keep them to their word. The latest: the funding banks offered to resolve the issue via "binding arbitration". A full text of the letter sent by the banks can be found here (.pdf). In it, the banks claim that they are commited to funding the buyout "consistent with the terms of their Commitment Letter", but that a neutral arbitrator could expeditiously resolve the legal dispute (within six weeks, by their estimate). Not so fast. From a statement made by the two Firms: "This proposal is yet another disingenuous attempt by the banks to avoid living up to their commitments. The banks want to move this case into the back room because they fear that a public trial will clearly expose their misconduct." Meanwhile, the two sides continue to duke it out in Texas and New York. According to WSJ , the next NY hearing is set for this Thursday. Related Inside The Deals: Texas Justice May Give Clear Channel Another Shot Updated: Judge Awards Temporary Restraining Order Against Banks In Clear Channel Case ...

Source: www.portfolio.com --- 16 days ago
There's been a lot of litigation over Private Equity deals that have gone bust since the credit crunch began, last summer. But the banks themselves have thus far avoided an adverse ruling that could haunt them in the future. Until now. On Thursday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman will hold a hearing on motions for summary judgment by the Private Equity Firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital against six banks who have been accused of failing to honor their commitments to finance the $19.4 billion buyout of radio-station giant Clear Channel Communications . The banks, meanwhile, are also potentially on the hook to Clear Channel itself on claims that their repudiation of the financing deal amounts to a tortuous interference with contract. This morning, counsel for the banks made public a letter to the Private Equity Firms, suggesting that the fight over the commitment letter be resolved through binding arbitration before a single, neutral arbitrator. "The banks are repeat players in this game," says Elizabeth Nowicki, a professor at Tulane University Law School and a participant in a Private Equity session at the recent Tulane Corporate Law Institute. "I can see how these banks are beginning to sweat. The stakes are pretty darned high," she said. Nowicki sees the offer to arbitrate as "a sign that nobody, including the banks' counsel, knows how this is going to play out." An adverse ruling could im ...

Source: www.portfolio.com --- 14 days ago
With a $22 billion in financing at stake, a hearing over the disputed buyout of radio giant Clear Channel Communications drew a packed audience in lower Manhattan today. Runners for hedge fund managers and law Firms showed up early at the New York State Supreme Court for the afternoon hearing. One hedge fund representative who showed up was juggling two BlackBerrys and loudly complaining about the crowd turning into a "clusterfuck," ruining the time spent by his runner. (He got in nonetheless.) While today's hearing produced some colorful internal bank emails -- including one that wished the recipient good luck in getting out of the deal, adding that "lot of bonuses were on the line" -- the case centers on a commitment letter the banks signed last May, just before the credit crunch hit. The two Private Equity Firms leading the Clear Channel buyout are trying to force the banks to close on the commitment letter. It is part of a two-prong legal attack on the banks. Another lawsuit, filed by Clear Channel in a Texas court, contends that the banks are liable for tortuous interference with the buyout agreement by not providing the financing. The hearing today, before Justice Helen Freedman, was on a motion for summary judgment by the banks seeking to throw out the Private Equity Firms' claims. Guy Miller Stuve (rhymes with "groovy") of Davis Polk & Wardwell, argued for the banks, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Credit S ...

Source: privateequity.bloggingstocks.com --- 38 days ago
Filed under: Private Equity , Clear Channel Commun (CCU) It's a scary thing for investment bankers: the "credit crunch." It has essentially depleted the industry, as dealmaking has shrunk significantly. In fact, according to Bloomberg, there was a 35% drop in M&A fees for Q1. True, the M&A business is known for its "feast-famine" cycles, but this time it looks like things could be particularly bleak - and perhaps long lasting. Just look at the break-down of the $19.5 billion buyout for Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU ). Basically, financial institutions are in the process of repairing their balance sheets, and as a result, don't have the firepower to finance deals -- especially large ones. In fact, these Firms need to find ways to deal with more than $200 billion in LBO loans. There is also likely to be a slowdown in strategic acquisitions. That is, as the US economy slows down - which may impinge the global economy - where buyers are likely to get jittery. Why take big risks in such an environment? Now, there are offsetting factors such as the emergence of mega sovereign wealth funds. However, they may get some political pushback. In other words, don't expect a comeback anytime soon. Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements . He also operates DealProfiles.com .   Read  |  Permalink  |  Email t ...