Will a Symbol of Wall Street Malfeasance Own Mets?
This past Tuesday, Steven A. Cohen, the head of Point72 Asset Management, cleared an important obstacle in his campaign to buy the New York Mets, winning the approval of Major League Baseball’s Ownership Committee. Fred Wilpon and his brother-in-law Saul Katz, the team’s current owners, had accepted Cohen’s offer of approximately $2.4 billion on September 14th, after an auction process. Cohen triumphed over two other investor groups, one led by the former Yankees player Alex Rodriguez and his partner, the actress and pop star Jennifer Lopez, and another by Josh Harris and David Blitzer, experienced professional-sports investors from the private-equity firms Apollo Global Management and Blackstone, respectively. In order for the deal to go forward, Cohen must not only demonstrate that he has the funds but also navigate a series of tests meant to assess his fitness as a potential member of the small club of (mostly) wealthy men who own major-league baseball teams. The ownership committee consists of eight team owners, seven of whom voted to approve Cohen. The approval process moves next to the league’s executive council. If the council signs off, the transaction goes to a full vote by all thirty teams in the league, which is currently scheduled for November 17th. Twenty-two of the twenty-nine other team owners must also vote yes for the deal to close. Until this week, winning their approval seemed like the biggest hurdle Cohen faced. But a small, nearly overlooked fact just emerged that has the potential to complicate Cohen’s plans.
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