Clear Channel sells more stations

Clear Channel Communications will sell up to 362 radio stations across the USA for about $820 million. Deals to sell stations in 38 markets have been made over the past week, according to a Clear Channel news release.

Clear Channel has now sold most of the 448 smaller-market stations the company said it wanted to shed as part of its restructuring, businesses which contributed less than 10% to the company’s 2005 revenue.

Proceeds from the sales, projected to be $1.86 billion, will be used to reduce Clear Channel’s long-term debt.

Clear Channel announced last year that it was considering sale options, with Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners winning an auction to take the company private with a bid of $18.7 billion, or $37.60 a share.

That bid since has been raised to $19.4 billion, or $39 a share, because of shareholder resistance to the original selling price.

A shareholder vote on the buyout is scheduled for Tuesday.

Despite selling about 40 percent of its radio holdings, Clear Channel remains America’s largest radio broadcaster, with more than 700 stations.