During that time the current owner, Fred Wilpon, 83, will continue to serve as the team’s chairman. He bought half the team along with Nelson Doubleday in 1980, and the other half in 2002. Wilpon’s son, Jeff Wilpon, who is the team’s chief operating officer, will remain in that job for five years.
The Mets have struggled to compete against the more popular New York Yankees, and it shows in the team’s financial fortunes as well as their middling success on the field. The team’s fans have often focused their anger and disappointment on the Wilpons for their decisions on whether or not to sign players.
Just earlier in the day Wednesday the Mets lost one of their best pitchers, Zack Wheeler, to the rival Philadelphia Phillies when he signed a five-year, $118 million deal with them.
Cohen, 63, is CEO and President of Point72 Asset Management, and he will continue in those roles.
“It has always been a dream of mine to be a majority owner of a Major League Baseball franchise,” Cohen wrote Wednesday in an investor note obtained by CNN Business. “That does not change — and will not change — what my first passion is and always has been: investing.”
Cohen told investors that his family office, Cohen Private Ventures, will manage his stake in the Mets. The billionaire said he will continue to run Point72.
— CNN Business’ Matt Egan contributed to this report
