Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund holds a 19.3 percent stake in The New York Times Co., and over the summer placed even more bets that the company's stock would go up; however, as Times Co. stock has dropped by about 50 percent, Harbinger is pulling away from a number of those bets, Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

Harbinger bet on the changing price of millions of Times Co. shares, making about 30 “equity swaps” with a brokerage firm in London that specialises in derivatives, E&P reported. Harbinger predicted in a “long” position that the prices would rise, and expected to collect the difference when the swap concluded. However, if the price goes down, as is currently the case, Harbinger would pay out the difference.

When the bets were placed, Harbinger claims the stock price at the time ranged from US$12.84 to $15.96 per share. Harbinger ended one swap at $7.47 last Friday, and one at $7.19 on Monday, E&P reported.