Posted by chicagomedia.org on October 28, 2009 at 10:18:12:
Clear Channel's President Is Stepping Down
By MICHAEL J. De La MERCED
Published: October 27, 2009 | NY Times
Randall Mays has decided to step down from his positions as president and chief financial officer of Clear Channel Communications, according to an internal memorandum from the company.
Mr. Mays will become Clear Channel's vice chairman, a role focused more on strategic advice, once his successor is found, the memo said. He will also retain a board seat.
Mark P. Mays, the company's chief executive and Mr. Mays's brother, will resume the role of president at that time.
"We have an active search for a new C.F.O. under way," Mark Mays said in the memo, "and we have been impressed with the caliber and number of candidates that have been identified."
The decision by Randall Mays is the latest change at Clear Channel after its $24 billion takeover by two private equity firms, Bain Capital and THL Partners. Since that leveraged buyout was completed last year, the company has undertaken a restructuring program to cope with the billions of dollars in debt it incurred in the deal.
Upon acquiring a company, private equity firms often take a more direct role in managing the company, especially in the company's finances and operations.
A Clear Channel spokeswoman declined to comment.
The two Mays brothers are the sons of Lowry Mays, who built Clear Channel from one Texas radio station in 1972 into the nation's largest radio broadcaster.
But efforts to sell the company to Bain and THL dragged on from the time the deal was announced in late 2006, and came amid the beginning of the downturn in advertising spending and the financial markets.
In January, CC Media Holdings, the parent company of Clear Channel Communications, struggling in the advertising downturn, announced that it was eliminating 1,850 positions, or about 9 percent of its staff.