Photo: Steve Marcus
When Steve Cohen’s purchase of the New York Mets fell apart in February, many wondered if the hedge fund billionaire had really given up on his dream of buying the franchise.
At the time, Cohen stated that “as a minority owner” he looked forward to an open auction in which the team would go to the highest bidder. But that was when it looked like the Wilpons would have no problem selling their franchise at a premium. Now after months of fallout from the pandemic, the Mets value has plummeted.
Due to the circumstances surrounded the sale, Cohen has once again emerged as a prime candidate to land the Mets after all. Reports have gone as far to describe him as the front-runner at this stage of the auction process. Allen & Co. (the firm handling the sale of the team for the Wilpons) is fielding the first round of bids this week, with a deadline set for Thursday.
Charles Gasparino, Fox Business Network Senior Correspondent, has been all over this story for weeks now and continues to report progress towards Cohen’s purchase of the team. Gasparino’s sources have indicated that the first round of bids will likely end with Cohen getting the chance to submit the final offer.
BREAKING: As reported hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen & the Wilpons have been in direct discussions about Cohen's purchase of @Mets, per sources. One described tomorrows "first round" bid process this way: "Everybody bids, the Wilpons show them to Stevie & ask for $200k more"
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) July 8, 2020
As a minority owner, Cohen is privy to all of the information about the team’s sale, putting him in the powerful position of being able to see everyone’s offer and outbid them. Gasparino’s report supports that notion, although it would be surprising if $200,000 was all it would take for Cohen to overtake the other offers.
Instead, there is a chance Gasparino misquoted and meant to put $200 million more, as $200,000 is rather insignificant when talking about money at this scale. Still, the overarching point remains that Cohen is squarely in the running to buy the Mets.
The financial aspect of buying the team was not an issue when the Wilpons were first set to sell the team to Cohen originally, but the terms of the agreement ended up being the deciding factor that broke up the deal. Those details will have to be ironed out to make this sale work, but each side should be more motivated then ever to get a deal done.
