Hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners said in a regulatory filing it had sold about 5 million shares in New York Times Co at $8.25 apiece on Sept. 17, to reduce its stake to 16.38 percent from 19.94 percent.

The sale was at a discount of 1.3 percent to the low price on the day of the sale.

The Times has been fighting a loss of advertising revenue and also has hundreds of millions of dollars of debt coming due in the next few years.

In May, media mogul David Geffen tried to buy a stake in the media conglomerate at market prices from Harbinger but was rebuffed after the hedge fund reiterated it wanted him to pay a premium.

New York Times shares closed down 2.4 percent at $8.16 on Monday. (Reporting by Biswarup Gooptu in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)

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