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Capstar, Chancellor and HMTF

Table of contents 
  1. LIN TV
  2. HMTF
  3. Studies

This page looks at Chancellor, Capstar and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst.


LIN TV

In 1998 HMTF acquired US television group LIN TV in a US$1.9 billion deal.

The group traced its origins to LIN Broadcasting, a conglomerate that included radio, television, publishing and mobile phone operations. A 45% controlling stake in LIN was acquired by mobile phone giant McCaw, which in turn was acquired by AT&T.

AT&T spun off the broadcaster's television operations as a new, Nasdaq-listed public company - LIN Television Corporation. Spin off reflected regulatory concerns - the telco was concerned with carriage, not content - and focus (AT&T had acquired McCaw for its mobile phone operations ad was keen to sell non-core assets such as broadcasting to pay down its huge debt). AT&T simultaneously acquired the outstanding shares in LIN Broadcasting.

The HMTF deal followed a bid by Raycom.

HMTF

[under development]

Studies

There have been no major studies of Chancellor, Capstar Broadcasting or HMTF.

A perspective is provided in Connie Bruck's The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham & the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders (New York: Penguin 1989), The New Financial Capitalists: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Creation of Corporate Value (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1998) by George Baker & George Smith, Merchants of Debt: KKR and the Mortgaging of American Business (New York: Basic Books 1992) by George Anders and works cited on the LIN, Clear and Metromedia profiles elsewhere on this site.