Mubadala Capital completes $6.2bn Clear Channel deal

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital has completed its $6.2bn takeover of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, the US billboard operator said on Wednesday, concluding a Mubadala Capital Clear Channel deal announced in February 2026.

Clear Channel Outdoor said in a statement that the transaction closed after it received all applicable regulatory approvals and the backing of its stockholders. The company’s common shares will stop trading and be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Shareholders received $2.43 in cash for each share, according to the merger terms published when the agreement was signed. That price represented a 71% premium to the $1.42 at which the stock closed on 16 October 2025, the last trading day before media reports of a possible sale.

Mubadala Capital Clear Channel deal: the terms

The acquisition was struck in partnership with TWG Global, the investment group led by Mark Walter. At signing, Mubadala Capital and TWG said they would provide about $3bn of committed equity capital, with funds managed by Apollo investing preferred equity and a group led by JPMorgan Chase Bank and Apollo funds committing debt financing.

Holders of roughly 48% of Clear Channel’s outstanding common shares had signed support agreements before the vote, the February announcement said. The deal had originally been expected to close by the end of the third quarter, and slipped by a few weeks while it awaited clearance from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which was granted earlier this month.

Clear Channel now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Madison Parent Inc., the acquisition vehicle, according to a closing-day summary of the company’s filings. The company also deposited funds to redeem its notes due in 2028 and 2029 in full on 24 October, the same summary said.

New leadership at the US billboard group

The change of ownership brings a change at the top. Wade Davis has been appointed chief executive and joins the board as executive chairman, replacing Scott Wells, who stepped down as chief executive and director and will stay on as an adviser during the transition.

Davis is the founder and chief executive of ForgeLight, an investment firm he set up in 2019. He ran TelevisaUnivision as chief executive from January 2021 to September 2024 and remains its vice chairman, and was previously chief financial officer of Viacom between 2012 and 2019.

John Halley, most recently president of advertising at Paramount Global, joins Clear Channel as chief commercial officer with responsibility for all commercial activities, the company said.

Clear Channel Outdoor is one of the largest out-of-home advertising companies in the United States, with a nationwide billboard network and airport advertising inventory. It has spent recent years selling its European businesses to concentrate on the US market, while investing in digital displays, data analytics and programmatic buying tools.

Why the Clear Channel Outdoor acquisition matters for Abu Dhabi

Mubadala Capital is the alternative asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. In the closing statement, the firm described itself as a platform that manages, advises and administers more than $755bn of assets for clients and limited partners through its alternatives businesses and strategic partnerships.

The Clear Channel Outdoor acquisition gives an Abu Dhabi-backed investor full control of one of the biggest billboard networks in the US. It extends a pattern of Abu Dhabi capital moving into cash-generative, asset-backed businesses in developed markets, rather than minority stakes alone, and follows other Mubadala-linked ventures such as the clean-energy developer Masdar that have built scale through full ownership.

For Gulf investors, the deal is also a test of whether outdoor advertising, which has shifted rapidly towards digital screens, can deliver private-equity-style returns under new ownership. Oscar Fahlgren, Mubadala Capital’s chief investment officer, said at signing that Clear Channel was “a category leader with a strong platform and significant potential ahead”.

What happens next

Clear Channel intends to file a Form 15 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend its public reporting obligations once the NYSE delisting takes effect. The company will then report to its new owners as a private business.

Attention will now turn to how Davis and Halley reshape the company’s commercial strategy, and whether the Mubadala Capital Clear Channel combination becomes a platform for further consolidation in US out-of-home advertising. More regional deal coverage is available in our News section, and the full closing announcement is on PR Newswire.