Doing deals isn’t getting any easier.

Providence is considering withdrawing from a $1.2 billion deal to buy Clear Channel’s assets.

If that fell apart, it would be the latest in a string of deals that have been pulled, put on ice or renegotiated.

The Providence/Clear Channel wobble comes as the radio operator is at the final stages of closing a take-private deal of its own.

Victor Miller, analyst at Bear Stearns, published a reassuring note this morning. ”Reports indicated thatProvidence may walk on its $1.2 billion purchase of CCU’s TV assets. The “sale of the division is not a condition of the closing” and even if CCU had to remarket, the potential price differential is not likely to take down a $26 BB deal.” 

Miller thinks the Clear Channel deal will close around Jan 31.  There’s an incentive to not let things drag, though, because of a “ticking fee” — a fee if a deal completes later than the planned date — boots in after Jan 1.