On the record · Other
Clear Channel Outdoor (iHeartMedia)
Bain Capital and THL Partners took Clear Channel Communications private for $26.7B in 2008 — one of the largest LBOs before the financial crisis. The company (renamed iHeartMedia) filed for bankruptcy in 2018 with $20B in debt.
Research depth
Outcomes researched
Reviewed operating findings or a classified operating outcome are available.
Record updated Sept. 4, 2026
Current ownership
Current owner not established
This record does not identify a current owner. That absence is a gap in the record, not a conclusion about ownership.
1 ownership record has an unresolved current/former status.
Ownership and transaction history
Chronology from recorded ownership periods, transactions and reviewed outcome events. Event order does not imply causation.
Date not recorded
What happened under and after ownership
Operating outcome
Operating through distress or restructuring
Parent iHeartMedia, taken private by Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee Partners in 2008, filed Chapter 11 in March 2018 with more than $20 billion of debt. The Clear Channel Outdoor billboard unit was not part of that filing and kept operating as a separately traded company.
Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings trades independently on the NYSE, and iHeartMedia emerged from Chapter 11 in 2019 under its creditors; neither is controlled by the 2008 buyers.
- Sponsor at closure
- Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners
- Wolf Street · 2018 · iHeartMedia's March 2018 Chapter 11 filing, its 2008 Bain Capital/Thomas H. Lee LBO, and that the Chapter 11 filing did not include the Clear Channel Outdoor bi
- SEC EDGAR (Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings 10-K) · Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings operated as an independent public company, structurally separate from iHeartMedia's bankruptcy
What we do not know
These are gaps in the public record, not findings about the organization.
- No current public ownership assessment has been published.
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Firsthand experience, public sources and corrections can help close the gaps above.