clear channel wants glastonbury

[RaunchHands]

Clear Channel Offers 37.9 Million Pounds to Buy Mean Fiddler
c.2005 Bloomberg News

By Lars Klemming

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Clear Channel Communications Inc., the biggest U.S. radio broadcaster, offered to buy Mean Fiddler Music Group Plc, a U.K. tour promoter and organizer of the Glastonbury Festival, for 37.9 million pounds ($71.3 million).

Clear Channel offered 60 pence for each Mean Fiddler share, according to a Regulatory News Service statement. The offer is 8.6 percent more than Mean Fiddler’s closing price of 55.25 pence today.

The bid is being made through Hamsard, a joint venture Clear Channel formed with Irish concert promoter Denis Desmond’s MCD Productions. MCD owns 24.3 percent of the Mean Fiddler.

The directors of Mean Fiddler intend unanimously to recommend that shareholders accept the offer, according to the statement.

[Smallstone]

Hmm, pretty depressing. Clear Channel being a pretty prenicous bunch.
I've only been to Glastonbury as a paying punter the once, back in 1990 (the Cure, Happy Mondays, Lush etc) and it was great fun, but hard work! I've been back since a couple of times to work with bands. Both times were pretty grim. Rain, mud etc. But the festival is more popular now than ever before! it sells out in minutes! I know this years is the last one until 2007 as they are having a year off. Folks over here were a tad worried when Mean Fiddler got involved, fearing it would become more commercialised and corporate. If Clear Channel get their hands on it I can only see it getting worse. But punters seem to like it MORE these days. The so called good old days did mean lots of folks getting robbed, drugs everywhere and some occasional 'heavy' stuff going down. Also half the crowd got in fo free. All part of the festival vibe man! It was 1990 that it kicked off pretty badly with the traveller community.
But still Clear Channel. Contributors to the Bush Administration yeah?

[thorn]

exactly stay far away from sir dickface bush!!!!!1