Haven't seen a sign of this anywhere on dKos, so perhaps it's been flying under the radar, but this should be massive news with an election nearing... Mitt Romney's Bain Capital LLC is making a run at Clearchannel Communications with another private equity company that has had dealings with The Carlyle Group.
Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s directors accepted a revised $19.5 billion buyout offer from two private equity firms after two big shareholders indicated support for the bid.
The offer from Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Bain Capital LLC of $39.20 a share, 20 cents higher than a previously rejected bid, was unanimously approved by Clear Channel's board, the San Antonio-based company said Friday.
Why does this matter? Let's rewind back to 1999, when George W. Bush was making a run at the Presidency.
To most at the time, George W. Bush was a running joke. A dope who had never left the country, an AWOL draft dodger, a drunk, a cocaine user - he was nowhere near the Presidency.
Enter Clearchannel:
There are close ties between the company and President Bush. The Vice Chair of the company is Tom Hicks, a member of the Bush Pioneer club for elite (and generous) donors.
The relationship between Bush and Hicks goes back even further, however. The two were embroiled in scandal when Hicks, as University of Texas Regent, was responsible for granting endowment management contracts of the newly created (under legislation signed by Bush) UT Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO). The contracts were given to firms politically connected to both Hicks and Bush, including the Carlyle Group - a firm which has the first President Bush on the payroll and had the second one on the payroll until just weeks before receiving this lucrative business.
The board of UTIMCO also included the Chair of Clear Channel, L. Lowry Mays. In addition, Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers from George Bush, making him a wealthy man through a deal that was partially sweetened by a shiny new taxpayer financed stadium, which included valuable land obtained at below market rates through the use of eminent domain.
Is it any surprise, then, that Clearchannel talkback hosts (you know, guys like Limbaugh etc) started pounding the front-running John McCain relentlessly, while endlessly pumping up the CV of Bush?
The drumbeat was non-stop, and eventually it weakened McCain to the point where he went from populist favorite to unheralded also-ran.
This push continued as the courts were deciding the 2000 Presidential race, and it got even more intense in the run up to war with Iraq, as Dixe Chicks bans, CD crushing events, and Patriotism Rallies, for which Clearchannel DJs were told attendance was mandatory, were held around the country.
But that's all distant history. We're mostly concerned, now, with the present and future, which is why the new ownership talks of Clearchannel make for a VERY interesting story.
Bain Capital is the company that current Presidential nominee Mitt Romney founded back in 1984. Wikipedia takes it from here:
During the 14 years he headed the company, Bain Capital's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent. During Romney's tenure, the firm founded, acquired or invested in hundreds of companies including Staples, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Brookstone, Domino's, Sealy Corporation and The Sports Authority. Romney left Bain Capital in 1998 to head the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. His net worth has been estimated as at least $500 million USD.
And what of Romney's partner in this merger, Thomas H. Lee Partners?
Shareholders filed a lawsuit this week in the Manhattan federal court accusing Thomas H. Lee Partners of illegally conspiring to drive down the prices they paid when taking companies private. Media activists in Seattle claim that Thomas H Lee Partners' history of litigation for unethical business practices does not bode well for the legal and financial future of the Clear Channel properties which have dominated the US media.
That's not all. They recently bought Univision (tying up a nice chunk of the Latino media in the process) - not only that, but they've also gone 'big corporate hunting' with The Carlyle Group in the past.
Together with Bain Capital Partners and the Carlyle Group, Lee acquired Dunkin' Brands from Pernod Ricard for $2.4 billion in cash in March 2006
Now, yes, it's true that Romney left Bain in 2002 to take over the Salt Lake City Olympic Organizing Committee, but he retains a stake in Bain, and so with that company about to take over North America's (indeed, the world's) largest radio company, which has stakes in theatrical venues, advertising billboards and performance venues, what this essentially means is the machine that worked so well for Bush, is now being moved along to Romney.
Let there be no mistake - if you thought it was tough to buy billboard space to put up an anti-war message now, it's about to get harder. If you think there's a scarcity of left wing talkback radio now, it's about to get scarcer.
And if you think McCain got torpedoed in 2000, you ain't seen nothing yet.
LET'S MAKE IT KNOWN: Mitt Romney is not just a wealthy businessman running for the Presidency.
He is BUYING THE LARGEST RADIO NETWORK, which will push him relentlessly, as it has Bush.
He is BUYING ONE OF THE LARGEST OUTDOOR ADVERTISING NETWORKS, where he will advertise relentlessly, while others will be locked out of doing so.
He is BUYING UP THEATERS AND PERFORMANCE VENUES where political rallies take place and anti-Bush docos are shown.
He is doing this with two companies that own everything from Dunkin Donuts to Michaels Craft Stores to Staples to Outback Steakhouse to Univision to Burger King to Hospital Corporation of America to Sungard Data Systems.
This is big. Romney is buying this election in a way that Bush couldn't even match. Spread the word.