Business briefs: Clear Channel, banks, buyers in settlement talks

SAN ANTONIO -- Clear Channel Communications Inc. and its prospective buyers are talking with banks to try to settle a dispute over whether the banks must fund promised loans for the $19.5 billion takeover, the radio and outdoor advertising company said Monday.

Clear Channel shares jumped $2.87, or 9.6 percent, to $32.87.

The company and its private equity buyers, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, sued a consortium of six banks, accusing them of trying to undermine the deal by changing the terms. That lawsuit is pending in a Texas court, while the equity firms have a separate suit pending against the banks in New York court.

Pretrial hearings in San Antonio and the trial in New York were delayed Monday. The trial before a New York Supreme Court judge was rescheduled to start today.

The equity firms have been struggling to close the proposed deal, at $39.20 per share, as the credit markets have faltered and the share price has declined on fears the deal wouldn't close.

Survey: 1 in 10 boomers borrowing for expenses

NEW YORK -- The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey released today by the AARP.

In the telephone survey of 1,002 adults 45 and older, nearly four in 10 said they had helped a child pay bills or expenses. Among retirees, one-third said they'd helped their children pay bills. Eight percent said they'd helped a parent pay bills or expenses. The survey's margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

One-third of survey participants said they stopped putting money into their 401(k) or retirement account and 14 percent said they had cut back on their medications.