In a clear vote of “no confidence” in management, investment bankers Morgan Stanley sold their entire 10 million share stake in The New York Times, Leon Lazaroff and Jeff Kearns report for Bloomberg:
Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire 7.3 percent stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years.
The person declined to be identified because Morgan Stanley hasn’t made the sale public yet. Traders with knowledge of the transaction said Merrill Lynch & Co. brokered a $183 million block trade of 10 million New York Times shares this morning.
Hassan Elmasry, managing director of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, unsuccessfully challenged the Sulzberger family’s control of New York Times Co. through super-voting stock that gives them a board majority.
Read the whole report at the link above. Clearly, the Sulzberger and Ochs families ought to have found a different position for the ne’er-do-well scion, Pinch. He’s run the company and the newspaper into the ground. Perhaps a nice, cushy job in the mail room would have been more suited to his “talents.” Ah, well, too late now . . .
