Clearly A Lousy Quarter

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings and CC Media Holdings, which owns 90 percent, both reported tanking revenues and major write-downs in their second quarter financials Aug. 10.

CC Media reported a loss of $3.67 billion, or $45.23 per share and included $4 billion in write-downs, according to the Wall Street Journal. Revenue fell 22 percent to $1.44 billion.

Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners used CC Media as the vehicle to privatize Clear Channel Communications in a $17.9 billion leveraged buyout, according to the paper.

Meanwhile, Clear Channel Outdoor posted its third loss in a row, thanks in large part to the downturn in advertising that has hit not only media but billboards as well.

It reported a Q2 loss of $689.1 million, or $1.94 per share, compared with a 2008 profit of $80.3 million, or 23 cents per share, in the same period.

Revenue dropped 24 percent to $692.1 million, below the $720.2 million projected in a poll of Thomson Reuters analysts, according to the WSJ.