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Citadel may be bought by Cumulus after higher bid

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Radio broadcaster Citadel Broadcasting Corp said it was in talks to be bought by its larger rival Cumulus Media, after a sweetened bid worth $2.4 billion brought it back to the negotiating table.

Citadel, the third-largest radio broadcaster in the United States, said Cumulus would pay $37.00 per share in a combination of cash and Cumulus stock, a premium of 4.4 percent on Citadel's closing price of $35.45 on Thursday. Citadel is the second-largest U.S. broadcaster.

In December, Citadel rejected an unsolicited offer to be bought by Cumulus for as much as $1 billion. The company had filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2009.

Radio broadcasters have been consolidating as advertising dollars shrink and listeners migrate toward free Internet content and to subscription services like Sirius XM satellite radio.

Crestview Partners and Macquarie Capital are expected to provide $500 million in equity financing, the companies said.

Cumulus expects the remainder of the cash in the transaction to be funded through debt financing led by UBS Investment Bank and Macquarie Capital.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Gary Hill)