Great Neck Billionaire Agrees To Buy Mets

GREAT NECK, NY — Great Neck native and billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen has agreed to buy the New York Mets, the team announced Monday.

Led by Fred and Jeff Wilpon, as well as the Katz family, Sterling Equities has maintained an ownership interest in the Mets since 1980, according to the company's website. It gained full ownership in 2002. It also built and has since operated Citi Field, the team's home stadium since 2009.

Sterling Partners signed an agreement with Cohen, 64, for Cohen to buy the Mets, the team said, though MLB owners still have to approve the sale.

"I am excited to have reached an agreement with the Wilpon and Katz families to purchase the New York Mets," Cohen said in a statement posted by the Mets on Twitter.

Forbes estimates Cohen's net worth at $14.6 billion as of Tuesday. He oversees Point72 Asset Management, a $16 billion hedge fund company that started managing outside capital in 2018. The hit Showtime series "Billions" is inspired by Cohen.

Cohen has been a fan of the Mets since the team's inaugural season over five decades ago and is already a minority owner for the team.

"I’ve been going to Mets games since I was a kid, when they played in the Polo Grounds," he wrote in a letter to shareholders of his hedge fund last year. "It has always been a dream of mine to be a majority owner of a Major League Baseball franchise."

Under the Wilpons, the Mets have had mixed success. The team went to the playoffs in 2006, losing in the National League Championship Series, or NLCS, to the St. Louis Cardinals, then again in 2015 and losing in the World Series to the Kansas City Royals. The following year, the team lost to the San Francisco Giants in the NL Wild Card Game

Newsday reported, citing an anonymous source, that Cohen would own 95 percent of the Mets if the deal is approved. The team valued the Mets at about $2.5 billion.

Cohen is a familiar name on Wall Street and drew the attention of federal prosecutors. In 2013, his hedge fund SAC Capital pleaded guilty to securities fraud.