Hicks Muse Co-Founder Plans to Retire in 2005

Thomas O. Hicks, who built Hicks Muse Tate & Furst Inc. into the second-largest buyout firm before $2 billion in losses on telecommunications and media stakes helped drop it to ninth, will retire in March 2005.

Co-founder John R. Muse, 53, will succeed Hicks, 58, the Dallas-based firm said in a statement. Hicks, who started in business at age 13 by selling ads for one of his father’s Texas radio stations, said he planned to focus on family businesses including baseball’s Texas Rangers and hockey’s Dallas Stars.

Hicks Muse generated annual returns of more than 30% in the 1990s from companies such as Clear Channel Communications Inc.