Reports say that Geffen, founder of Geffen Records and co-founder of Dreamworks SKG, offered to buy the 19.8% stake owned by Harbinger Capital Partners at market value earlier this month
Harbinger, the New York Times Company's biggest investor, was believed to have deemed the offer too low and did not pursue a deal.
Harbinger's stake is valued at below $200m (£131.5m). Shares of the New York Times have fallen 65% in the past year, closing at $6.81 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.
Geffen also offered $2bn for the Los Angeles Times in 2006, but his bid was rejected by Tribune Company.
Tribune later sold the business to Chicago real estate billionaire Sam Zell who slashed costs and took it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Sources quoted by the Financial Times said that Geffen remained interested in owning the company and would be "a patient buyer".
Earlier this year, the New York Times Company, which is controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through its ownership of supervoting shares, borrowed $250m from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to repay mounting debts.
It was speculated could become the biggest shareholder in the New York Times in the next couple of years because of the high interest rates the Ochs-Sulzberger family borrowed at.
Billionaire Geffen co-founded the DreamWorks SKG studio with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994. He famously signed Nirvana to his DGC label in 1991.
Read more on Brand Republic:
On Gordon's Republic blog:
.jpg)
.jpeg)
