Dust off those 30-year-old deal documents and review the financing terms, because they may be useful again. Courtney Thompson of Media Services Group reports that in his sector, at least, tight credit conditions are forcing buyers and sellers to use alternative financing arrangements to get deals done -- including seller financing, which was last big in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Writing in From the Ground Up, a newsletter from boutique i-bank Near Earth LLC, Thompson says relations between his clients (many of them broadcast companies) and lenders have chilled or even turned adversarial, making acquisition finance much harder. Hence the use of seller paper and other alternatives such as local marketing agreements. "We're seeing these happening," Thompson said in a phone call.

A scan of Media Services' site gives an idea of what kinds of deals they do: mainly $100 million and under, involving many company names, some of them (like Clear Channel Communications Inc.) familiar to an industry outsider.

Is seller financing coming up in other industries? Post a comment if you know. Meanwhile, here's a quick primer
on the topic. - Kenneth Klee

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