Takeover battles often have more pieces in motion than fit into any one courtroom. In the ongoing Clear Channel merger, the banks (who are trying to escape or at least renegotiate their funding obligations) have filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the Texas Supreme Court seeking dismissal of a pending tort suit against them.

How does that fit into the New York litigation, in which summary-judgment motions are pending?

Adam Ross Sorkin from the New York Times has this very interesting analysis of how the pieces fit together and how a pending Texas case shapes what happens in New York settlement talks.