According to the filing, Highfields officials met with members of the Reader’s Digest Board of Directors and requested that the company take a more aggressive stance, including buying back shares and attempting to increase its earnings per share.

According to the filing, on March 26 Highfields also sent a letter to Devita with an even more explicit statement of its intentions, and raised their offer to $5 per share. In addition, the fund said once it had made changes to Reader’s Digest, all shares in the company would be turned into voting shares, thereby relinquishing control of the company to all investors.

“To be clear,” the letter states, “Highfields is willing to pay the Wallace Funds $31 million for voting control of the Company and then give up that control for the benefit of all shareholders including the Wallace Funds. Certainly the immediate benefit to the beneficiaries of the Wallace Funds would be substantial.”

The April 2 deadline for the offer of has since come and gone, and Wallace has not changed their stance on the offer.

A spokesperson for Wallace declined comment on the matter, and Highfields co-founder Richard Grubmandid not return calls for comment.

Jack Meyer, the president of HMC, which owned nearly $11 million in Reader’s Digest stock as of last quarter independently of Highfields’ investments, also did not return a call for comment.

—Staff writer Joseph P. Flood can be reached at flood@fas.harvard.edu.