Hearst Apparently Sold Entire 22% Stake In Local.com

Hearst Corp., which earlier this year made a private placement investment in local search engine Local.com (LOCM) debt and warrants convertible into a 22% stake in the company, has apparently converted the securities into common stock and sold all of its shares in the open market.

In February, Hearst paid $6 million for its stake, which consisted of convertible debentures with a conversion price of $4.02 a share, and two series of warrants, with conversion prices of $4.82 and $5.63. According to a 13-D filing made at the time, the securities were convertible into 2,686,567 Local.com shares.

In a recent series of Form 4 filings with the SEC, Hearst has disclosed a steady stream of sales. With its most recent transaction, on July 12, the company’s most recent filing shows that Hearst is now down to zero shares. The company sold its shares in a long series of transactions, most of them on July 10 and 12, at prices at $9 or higher.

Local.com shares had spiked recently after the company received several patents related to local search.