Clear Channel reaches agreement with its lenders

Radio industry leader Clear Channel struck a deal to go private about a year and a half ago. Earlier this month, the company decided to take a lower price and slightly higher lending rates to settle a dispute with its lenders.

Clear Channel's lenders, which include Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia, agreed to place all financing into an escrow account, pending the deal's closing, the company said late Thursday.

The acquisition's private equity sponsors and certain shareholders investing in the new company are required to fund the equity financing into escrow by Wednesday.

The final $36 per-share deal price was 8 percent below the latest offer of $39.20, and even below the original price of $37.60 that major shareholders had opposed as being too low. Clear Channel struck the original deal to be taken private by the buyout firms Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners in November 2006.