The Clear Channel deal may seem like the longest, most drawn out LBO ever, but at least it looks like this time it could be the end of the drama.

One big safeguard in the new agreement is that the banks and the private equity buyers have agreed to put all their equity and debt obligations into escrow within ten and seven business days.

As Clear Channel’s CEO Mark Mays notes, this greatly increases the certainty that the deal will close.

It’s a pretty unusual state of affairs though.

“Look at this in the context of the litigation history here, there’s no small amount of distrust between the company, the sponsors and the lending group,” said Joel Greenberg, partner and co-chair of law firm Kaye Scholer LLP’s Corporate and Finance Department, who described the escrow arrangement as “about as secure as you can get”.

Given the history of the Clear Channel deal — a bidding battle, shareholder pressure forcing the price up twice, quirky offerings like stub equity, litigation and courtroom drama – almost nothing could surprise anymore about this deal.  

But unless shareholders upset the applecart when it goes to a vote this summer, this could, at last, be the final cut.