Steve Cohen’s Proposal To Buy Mets’ Majority Stake Falls Through

After weeks of speculation surrounding Steve Cohen’s attempt to buy a majority share of the Mets, the team announced in a statement that they’ll be looking for another buyer. Cohen, a hedge-fund manager, had initially proposed to purchase the controlling share of the team currently owned by the families of Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz for $2.6 billion.

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The Wilpon’s firm Sterling Partners released a statement that said, “The transaction between Sterling and Steve Cohen was a highly complicated one. Despite the efforts of the parties over the past several months, it became apparent that the transaction as contemplated would have been too difficult to execute. Sterling intends now to pursue a new transaction and has engaged Allen & Company to manage that process.”

The proposed deal would have allowed Wilpon to remain CEO for five years and his son would also keep his position of COO for the same amount of time while giving Cohen an 80% stake in the team. “I’m very disappointed we couldn’t work out a deal, but as an 8% holder I’m looking forward to a higher bid for the team,” Cohen said in a statement. “I gave it my best shot.”

“Why would anyone put up $2.6 billion and not have any say in the operations of the business he was buying?,” a source close to Cohen told the New York Post. “That doesn’t make any sense. Anyone who tells you any different isn’t credible. The governance issues always had to be worked out and they just never got there.”

Although the proposed deal was mostly confidential another source close to Cohen said, “Steve thought he would be controlling the shots. He would be the power behind the throne. Baseball balked at that.” Cohen initially bought a $20 million stake in 2012 when the team was looking for investors following the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme which cost the Wilpon’s millions of dollars.