Billionaire investor Steve Cohen, who is in the running to purchase of the Dodgers, is close to buying a $20 million share of the Mets, Bill Shaikin reports in the LA Times.
“If Cohen were to buy the Dodgers, he would have to sell his stake in the Mets,” Shaikin says. “However, by helping the Mets, Cohen could be in a favorable position to buy the Mets outright if the team were put up for sale and the Dodgers were sold to another party.”
Last year around this time, the New York Post reported that Cohen was the frontrunner to buy a 49 percent minority stake in the Mets,’ however they later reported talks had ‘cooled,’ at which point they settled on partnering with David Einhorn.
According to Forbes, Cohen is worth $8.3 billion. He is the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, a Connecticut-based hedge fund, whose records had been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation in to insider trading. However, to date, no charges have been filed against Cohen or SAC.
Earlier this week, Steven Marcus of Newsday said the Mets expect to complete the sale of 10 minority shares of the team at $20 million each by the end of February.
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To read more about Cohen, read Shaikin’s report in the LA Times.
Earlier today, Kate Kelly issued the following report on air for CNBC:
Stevie Cohen has offered to buy a 49 percent stake for about $200 million dollars, which is the cash that the Wilpons and Katz were hoping to raise. But, he does want some board seats in the Mets organization and he wants some significant say over how they do what they do. However, voting control within MLB would remain with the Wilpons, which is something that they have been insistent upon all along, as well as not wanting to sell a majority stake, which gives you sort of the 49 percent number. So, I’m told that talks are at a little bit of a stalemate right now. Cohen is demanding sort of stiffer terms than the organization was originally prepared to offer, but they are not dead. They are still happening and the goal is to get this thing done ASAP.”
Earlier this week, the New York Post and New York Times both reported that Cohen was the front-runner to buy in to the team’s Ownership.
However, this morning, SI.com’s Jon Heyman said Cohen doesn’t have the current high bid, though he is still interested in buying in to the team.
“Greenwich, Conn., hedge fund manager Stevie Cohen, a longtime friend of the Wilpons, had previously been seen as a favorite to buy the Mets minority stake that’s for sale, but word is Cohen doesn’t currently have the high bid. There’s been more interest than first predicted, and the sale is expected to keep the Wilpons afloat, at least for the foreseeable future (until they resolve their Madoff issue). There is no hard deadline to find the minority buyer, though financial pressures means they need to do it in coming weeks. Still, there seems to be more optimism they might hold onto the team now than there was a few months ago.”
~ Jon Heyman of SI.com
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I am eager for hard news. Real news. Not speculation, not guessing, not pseudo-experts predicting what and why it will happen. It’s simple: Who will be the partner? How much are they in for? And, how will it impact the team on-field? At this point, that is all that really matters to me.
According to the New York Post, ‘Controversial hedge-fund titan’ Steve Cohen is the frontrunner to buy a minority stake in the Mets.
The report indicates a deal is close, as the two sides were set to meet last night in Greenwich, Conn, but also writes the following:
The investor’s $12 billion SAC Capital hedge fund operation said in a letter to investors last November that it had received an “extraordinarily broad” subpoena from federal prosecutors probing insider trading on Wall Street. In a Dec. 31 letter, the Post has reported, Cohen promised those investors that he would pick up the tab for SAC’s costs in cooperating with the feds. SAC has not been charged or named in any action.”
Nevertheless, “Cohen wants it,” a source familiar with his thinking told the Post. “What he wants he gets.”
Well, then I hope he wants Jose Reyes, Albert Pujols and a championship as well…
Anyway, the buzz all over New York media is that the Mets will announce a partner at some point in the next few weeks. Clearly, there is a short list, likely three investment groups, and, from what I can gather, each want different things and are willing to buy in with different stakes. So, while I’m sure there is a front runner, I’d rather just sit tight, watch baseball and wait to hear what happens when actual, real news occurs. My only hope is that this doesn’t drag out and the team gets an influx of cash, and energy, before the Trade Deadline so it can re-evaluate and create a solid plan for the future.
MetsBlog Talk Radio debuted tonight, live at 6 pm EDT.
To listen to a re-broadcast of the show, click here, or click play in the audio player in the site’s sidebar, starting at roughly 8 pm EDT.
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Tonight’s guest included Gary Cohen from SportsNet NY, Buster Olney from ESPN.com, MetsBlog’s Mike Nichols, and Brian Moritz from the Press & Sun Bulletin, as well as as several listeners who were kind enough to call in.
Afterwards, be sure to check out The Baseball Musings radio show tonight at 8 PM EDT at TPSRadio.
In a surprising move, SportsNet NY will name Gary Cohen to be the TV voice of the Mets, reports Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. A news teleconference is set for 11:30 a.m. to make it official.
…wow…just wow…of course other names have been thrown around for a while including Dave O’Brien and Keith Hernandez among others considered….Cohen was in that mix too, but I never figured that WFAN’s great radio team would be split up….
…cant help but say I’m a little disapointed, he was so great on the radio…but look on the bright side: maybe this means no room for Fran Healy…we can only hope…
…i guess this is what a writer gets for burning the midnight oil…(yawn)…much more on this later I’m sure….
In the fifth inning, with two runners on, Mike Baxter took a terrible route on a Yorvit Torrealalba liner to left and couldn’t make the catch. Two runs scored to bring the Rockies within two.
Later, with the Mets leading 8-6 with two outs in the eighth inning, Josh Rutledge hit a routine comebacker to Brandon Lyon, but the ball bounced off his glove and Rutledge was safe at first.
Then, with the Mets shifting against Carlos Gonzalez, Gonzalez grounded a single the other way, and later stole second base uncontested to put runners at second and third.
Michael Cuddyer then hit a routine chopper up the middle which Ruben Tejada gloved but threw the ball wide to first, which allowed the tying runs to score.
“All I can tell you is it’s really tough to play in these conditions,” Terry Collins said about Tejada’s throw. “He just didn’t get a grip on the ball. So, it happens. I’m sure there are a lot of guys who aren’t use to playing in that cold.”
Two innings later, with two outs and the score tied 8-8, Greg Burke walked Gonzalez, and then Cuddyer pulled a groundball to David Wright, who just missed it — Gonzalez went to third and Cuddyer took second base on defensive indifference.
With Jordan Pacheco still facing Burke, he lined a single to right field to win the game for the Rockies.
“We had a chance to win the second game and that would have been a little easier to take. I’m not going to use the weather as an excuse,” Collins said. “We’re going to leave here hopefully with all four games played. We’ve just got to regroup and hopefully play better tomorrow.”
Andrew Vazzano, SNY.tv
Baxter came into the game for Lucas Duda, who left with back tightness. The Pride of Whitestone, who is normally quite solid in the outfield, looked so bad on that route that even Gary Cohen thought Duda was still in left (heck, Duda was still in the lineup on the scoreboard). It was an ugly play that kept the Rockies in the game and not something you normall expect out of the guy who saved Johan’s no-no.
Michael Baron, MetsBlog.com:
There were a whole array of breakdowns for the Mets starting in the eighth inning, starting with Lyon’s error and ending with Wright’s miscue. What’s worse, the situations in both the eighth and tenth innings developed with two outs – it was just an ugly effort on the Mets part right from the beginning of this doubleheader.
First off, I failed to understand why both Bobby Parnell and Anthony Recker essentially let Carlos Gonzalez walk to second base — as the tying run — in the eighth inning. Parnell just wasn’t paying attention to him, and Recker didn’t even attempt a throw.
In regards to Tejada’s error, yes, throwing errors happen. But Tejada has been awful there so far this season, and this error cost the Mets the lead, and potentially the game. Period. He has made six errors in 13 games so far, he’s throwing the ball poorly, backing up on balls and making a lot of back-handed plays. Both Collins and Tejada attributed the poor throw to the cold weather, and I get that. It looks miserable out there, and it must be tough to maintain focus, get a grip on the ball, react quickly, and so on. But what about the other errors which Tejada’s made under more normal conditions? The thing is, everyone knows Tejada is better than this — the Mets have to just ride this out, and hope he cleans his game up. I wonder if Tejada could use a game off just to give himself a mental break, but of course that’s hard to do considering the Mets don’t have a natural shortstop on the roster to back him up.
As for Wright’s misplay, it was originally called an error and later changed to a hit, but Wright makes that play 99 times out of 100. That mistake was representative of everything which had come crashing down in this game — and the doubleheader for that matter — for the Mets. I can sit here and point fingers at the bullpen, and yes, they are accountable to a degree, but they did their job to try and win this game late. They got the groundballs — the Mets didn’t make the plays.
