Hedge funds seek to shake up board of the New York Times
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 : PermalinkIndependent- Arthur Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times and the chairman of its family-controlled parent company, picked out one of the most irritating thorns in his side in October when, after a two-year campaign to shake up the company, a Morgan Stanley fund manager finally gave up and bailed out of the stock.
But the departure from the shareholder register of Hassan Elmasry provided only short-term relief from the pressures of Wall Street, because this week, Mr Sulzberger is contending with not one, but two new thorns.
A pair of hedge funds has amassed a 5 per cent stake and wants to impose a slate of new directors and a sharp new business strategy on the company, whose flagship newspaper is a beacon of the liberal media and bastion of serious, well-resourced journalism.