19 November, 2009
UPDATE 1-Harbinger cuts New York Times stake again
* Harbinger cuts New York Times stake to 14.64 pct
* Previous Harbinger stake was 16.38 pct
NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners cut its stake again in The New York Times Co (NYT.N), almost two years after it bought a big stake in a bid to shake up the newspaper publisher.
Harbinger owns 14.64 percent of the Times Co's publicly traded shares, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. In September, the hedge fund reported a 16.38 percent stake.
Harbinger and fund manager Philip Falcone had spent about a half billion dollars to buy some 20 percent of the Times Co's public shares in late 2007 and early 2008, rivaling the amount of publicly traded shares held by the Sulzberger family that controls the company.
At the Time, Harbinger was paying around $20 a share. Since then, the stock's value has plunged along with those of other U.S. newspaper publishers.
New York Times shares closed on Thursday at $8.84 on the New York Stock Exchange, making Harbinger's stake worth about $186 million. Their 12-month low was $3.44 in February.
Harbinger and investor partner Scott Galloway used their clout to mount a proxy battle against the Times, and eventually got two board seats at the company.
At the time, Galloway argued that the company and the Sulzbergers had become complacent about changes happening in the news and advertising business that were hurting newspapers.
The Times has taken action since then to improve its balance sheet and stave off high debt payments that were threatening its financial health. Earlier this year, it scrapped one of those attempts, giving up plans to sell the money-losing Boston Globe.
Another, larger attempt to shake up the company fizzled. In May, media mogul David Geffen tried to buy a stake in the Times at market prices from Harbinger, but the hedge fund rebuffed the offer after demanding that he pay a premium. (Reporting by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
Source: http://www.reuters.com
UPDATE 1-Harbinger cuts New York Times stake again Added: (19.11.2009)
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