Why brave the Texas courts? An agreement to press ahead with the Clear Channel buy-out would hardly leave everyone a winner. But it would leave all sides less badly off than they might have been from unleashing the lawyers to fight it out in the Lone Star State.

If a deal can be struck, Clear Channel shareholders – who have watched the share price of other failed buy-out targets such as Sallie Mae slide – would get their cash. The mooted $36 price tag might be 8 per cent less than they were once promised, but it is still a healthy premium to the price at which Clear Channel traded before takeover talks started in 2006. Over the same period, the S&P500 has gone nowhere. And taking cash upfront is easily preferable to waiting for unpredictable damages that might be won from a protracted legal fight.