Billboards, which trace their roots to ancient Egypt, are set to generate a boom in U.S. deal activity as the biggest operators seek to expand in regional markets, investment banking sources said.Billboards are holding their own with local audiences even as attention slips for other sorts of regional advertising, such as ads in local newspapers facing circulation declines, or TV commercials that viewers increasingly are able to skip.The four biggest publicly traded outdoor ad companies - Lamar Advertising REIT Co, Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc, Outfront Media Inc (formerly known as CBS Outdoor) and France's J.C Decaux SA - control more than half of the U.S. outdoor ad market.There is now a race to consolidate the rest of the industry, which is made up of independently run regional companies that are often owned by private equity funds.
Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. provides clients with advertising opportunities through billboards, street furniture displays, transit displays and other out-of-home advertising displays, such as wallscapes, spectaculars, neons and mall displays, which it owns or operates in global markets. Shares of CCO traded higher by 0.2% or $0.02/share to $9.85. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $6.22 and as high as $10.59. On average, 185355 shares of CCO exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 106838.
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