Fifteen years ago, the biggest radio broadcasting industry story involved a proposed acquisition and privatization of the predecessor of iHeartMedia. The effort resulted in Clear Channel Communications coming under control of two key investors — Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.
The privatization of Clear Channel would ultimately prove to be one of the most financially challenging transactions of the 2000s, coming just as the “Great Recession” of 2008 severely impacted various radio companies. For Clear Channel, some $20 billion in debt had been realized by February 2016.
Fast-forward seven years, and iHeartMedia is in a much healthier financial place. Much of that is linked to CFO and COO Rich Bressler, a former Managing Director at Thomas H. Lee Partners and a key individual involved in closing the $26.7 billion deal.
Now, Bressler and a legion of former colleagues are processing the still-unfolding details surrounding the self-inflicted death of Lee, whose name will be forever linked to transactions involving Univision and Clear Channel but was not actually tied to at the time the deals were finalized.
As reported by various media sources, Lee, who was 78 years old, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his office on the sixth floor of 767 Fifth Avenue in the New York borough of Manhattan.
In a statement, Thomas H. Lee Partners commented, “We are profoundly saddened by the unexpected passing of our good friend and former partner, Thomas H. Lee. Tom was an iconic figure in private equity. He helped pioneer an industry and mentored generations of young professionals who followed in his footsteps. More importantly, he was a generous and gracious individual who cared deeply about his friends, his family, and his community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Ann [Tennenbaum], and their family.”
The New York Post offered a glimpse into how Lee made borrowing money against the business being bought — a leveraged buyout — both successful and highly risky. In 1992, Thomas H. Lee Partners acquired Snapple, once a New York-centric juice and tea brand made nationally known by Howard Stern. Two years later, it was sold for $1.7 billion, a valuation 32 times the purchase price.
In contrast, a 1999 acquisition of Vertis Communications did not pan out; in 2008 it filed for bankruptcy.
While Thomas H. Lee Partners bears his name, a split in 2005 with Scott Sperling led Thomas H. Lee to create Lee Equity Partners in 2006. As such, he was no longer involved with the company he created when iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel completed its privatization effort. Similarly, Lee was no longer involved with Thomas H. Lee Partners in 2007, when it teamed with Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG and Saban Capital Group to purchase Univision Communications for $36.25 per share in cash. That transaction was originally announced on June 27, 2006.
Thus, Lee himself was not directly associated with those deals, which have been viewed as some of the least successful in the modern era of media investment.
And, according to Forbes, Lee’s net worth was roughly $2 billion.
On Friday, the New York Post published new details surrounding Lee’s death. In particular, he was found in his office bathroom by an assistant, dead of a single gunshot wound to the head. A Smith & Wesson revolver licensed to Lee was found next to him.
