Apparently, hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen is once again on the precipice of buying the New York Mets. And this time, one of the people in his investment group as a minority owner is Marc Lore, who sold Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion and continues to run Walmart's US e-commerce businesses.
The New York Post reports that Cohen "is in exclusive talks to buy the Mets in a deal that is rumored to be in the ballpark of $2.4 billion, a figure that would be roughly $200 million less than what the $14 billion man offered the last time he agreed to buy the team, all the way back in December 2019." One source tells the Post that "Cohen’s bid was at least $100 million more than the next closest bid submitted by former Yankee Alex Rodriguez and entertainer Jennifer Lopez, who announced they had pulled out of the process in a statement."
Last time around, Cohen's negotiations with the owning Wilpon family fell apart because the Wilpons wanted to continue running the team for five years even after selling it.
The Wall Street Journal provides some context on Cohen:
"Mr. Cohen is a lifelong Mets fan, and the team’s fans cheered the idea that a deeply connected billionaire might take over the team. He would become baseball’s wealthiest owner, with a net worth of about $14.6 billion, according to Forbes.
"But he comes with a different kind of baggage. His former firm, SAC Capital Advisors LP, one of the era’s most successful firms, pleaded guilty to insider trading in 2013 and agreed to pay a record fine of $1.8 billion.
"Mr. Cohen later reached a civil settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that restricted him from serving as the supervisor of a registered fund until 2018. He didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing as part of the civil settlement. Mr. Cohen’s firm is now known as Point72 Asset Management LP."
- KC's View:
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I don't generally find myself rooting for hedge fund billionaires, but I am totally on board with Cohen owning the Mets, who haven't won a World Series since 1986. The Wilpons got involved with Bernie Madoff, and since that disaster have been unable or unwilling to spend money on players like their cross-town rivals the Yankees. Cohen almost certainly will rectify that.
As for Marc Lore … If he helps bring a championship back to Queens, I'll take back everything negative I ever wrote about him. And in the future, I'll add the following line - "he helped save the Mets" - to all MNB references to him.
