Billionaire Steven A. Cohen is quite possibly in the process of buying a huge stake in the New York Mets. This has not been completely confirmed yet, but sources indicate Cohen would take over, after the Wilpons continue their position for five more years. In the past, when the Wilpons were under pressure from having investments in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Cohen had actually attempted to buy the Mets, a buy that was very much of interest to him.
By: Romy Ronen
Cohen purchased a 4% stake in the Mets in 2012 for $20 million. Bloomberg News reported he plans to up that stake to 80% of the team. If these reports are, indeed, true, and the deal is in the works, then the Mets would gain a sum total of $2.6 billion in value, as Cohen would obtain approximately 80%. The Mets have had their fair share of financial struggle, and this majority stake would not only help the Mets, but encourage the already discouraged, devoted fans who have been quite frustrated with the franchise itself.
New York Mets fans appear to be psyched up by Cohen’s interest in buying a significant stake in the National League club as they hope that a guy like Cohen could turn the team into a post season contender for the Fall Classic. The Mets have only made the playoffs just twice in the past decade.
If Cohen does purchase the Mets he would be the wealthiest owner across all the major sports leagues, according to a December 5th report in the Hartford Courant. The 63-year-old hedge fund manager is chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management in Stamford and lives in Greenwich, the report continued.
With Forbes estimating his net worth at $13.6 billion, that places Cohen in the sport of the second richest person who resides in Connecticut. The Hartford Courant article said that the only person ahead of Cohen in terms of wealth in Connecticut is yet another hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio who is worth an estimated $18.7 billion.
The Hartford Courant report that on a national scale that gauges wealth, Cohen has a ranking of number 35 and is higher of the Forbes 400 list than such prominent billionaires as George Soros who is estimated to have a net worth of $8.6 billion, filmmaker George Lucas who has a net worth of $6.2 billion, fashion designer Ralph Lauren who has a net worth of $6.3 billion and Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys football team who has a net worth of $8.6 billion.
Cohen grew up to a Jewish family in Great Neck, New York. His father worked in the garment district, his mother was a piano teacher. He had a relatively normal upbringing, focusing on hobbies like poker. Cohen was known as the kid who “took risks.” And most of all, he grew up rooting for the Mets. “It has always been a dream of mine to be a majority owner of a Major League Baseball franchise,” Cohen wrote in a note to investors Wednesday reviewed by Bloomberg News, as was reported in the Hartford Courant. The note reassured investors that Cohen would remain focused on “my first passion” of investing, but also said that “I look forward to seeing you at Mets games.”
He is now considered to be one of the biggest billionaires, hedge fund managers, philanthropists, and art collectors of our time. He is dedicated to the Robin Hood Foundation, serving his role as board of trustees. Most of his other philanthropy work has been geared towards helping veterans with PTSD through health centers and bioscience.
He has a massive art collection with pieces by Monet, Manet, Pollock, Hirst, Picasso, Warhol, and the list goes on. His reportedly $1 billion collection of art includes Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s “L’Homme au doigt” or “Man Pointing” that was purchased at a 2015 auction for $141.3 million, which broke the record for the most ever paid for a sculpture, according to the report in the Hartford Courant.
In 2013, Cohen bought Pablo Picasso’s “Le Reve” of “The Dream” from Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn for a staggering $155 million, which also shattered the record in terms of being the most money paid by a US collector for a piece of art.
On the bizarre and quite unusual side, the Courant also reported that Cohen owns a 14-foot shark preserved in formaldehyde and a self-portrait sculpture of a human head made from the artist’s own frozen blood.
As a renowned philanthropist and benefactor of the arts, Cohen gave $50 million to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
In 1986, he was charged with insider trading regarding shares of RCA. When under interrogation, he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right. In 2013, he was charged with insider trading again, pleading guilty, and paying $1.8 billion in fines in one of the biggest cases against a hedge fund. In addition to insider trading, Patricia Cohen, his ex wife, confirmed Cohen’s illegal insider trading so that he could push the beginnings of S.A.C. Capital. Cohen was not proven guilty, even with federal prosecutors inserting wires and devices in his phone to track his supposed wrongdoings. Cohen’s firm even withstood a sex discrimination lawsuit that claimed it was underpaying female employees and condoning crude behaviors.
Buying 80% of the Mets would have Cohen swinging high; as a kid who always took risks, this would be a big one, one that would take off a new rocket of opportunity, wealth, and growth in a sky of past scandal and scheme.
