By: Mark Fitzgerald Girding for a proxy fight with the Sulzberger family majority owners, dissident shareholder Harbinger Capital Partners increased its stake in The New York Times Co. to 15.61%, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Thursday.
Just this Tuesday, Harbinger had declared in a regulatory filing that it had increased its stake to 11.8% from about 5%.
Harbinger and Firebrand Partners founder Scott Galloway have nominated four candidates for election to the board of directors at the Times annual meeting April 22. The group contends the Times -- controlled Sulzberger family members through super-voting stock -- should be moving more aggressively to online publishing.
Separately, the Times Co. board Thursday filed its proxy statement with the SEC urging shareholders to vote for their slate of directors up for election.
Harbinger's filing came after the 4 p.m. close of trading. The Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) ended the day at $19.69, down $1.38 or 6.55%.
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The Washington Post's Frank Ahrens is out with Friday profile of the man behind the challenge, Scott Galloway.
Ahrens observes: "But yesterday, the Times Co. dealt Galloway's efforts a blow. In a preliminary proxy filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Times Co. listed its four nominees for the board in preparation for the shareholders meeting. None of Galloway's slate was among them. In a statement yesterday, Galloway's spokesman called the Times Co.'s move "disappointing," and noted that the company did not interview any of his candidates.
"Galloway's bid marks the first time a non-Ochs-Sulzberger family shareholder has proposed a slate of directors."
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