Putting the Dell sale in timeline context.
FORTUNE -- The Dell (DELL) buyout seems to have been dragging on forever, but it has a long ways to go before calling the folks at Guinness.
From what I can tell, the longest formal buyout process of all time belongs to Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners' pursuit of Clear Channel Communications.
In that case, Clear Channel announced on Nov. 14, 2006 that it MORE