The New York Mets and hedge-fund manager David Einhorn said Thursday that they have ended talks that would have seen Einhorn take an ownership stake in the team.
Announced to great fanfare in May, the deal as originally outlined would have seen Einhorn pay $200 million for a minority nonoperating investment, reported to be 49% of the team.
But the failure to seal the agreement after three months has seen the proposed deal collapse.
“I am disappointed to announce that I will not be purchasing an ownership interest in the New York Mets baseball team at this time,” Einhorn said in a statement.
“It is clear that it will not be possible for me to consummate the transaction on the terms that the Sterling-Mets organization and I originally agreed to several months ago. The extensive nature of changes that were proposed to me at the last minute has made a successful transaction impossible.”
The deal’s announcement came after a long and much-publicized search by Mets owner Fred Wilpon for an investor to help alleviate the team’s financial problems. The Mets are on course to lose about $70 million this year, reportedly have debts of about $500 million and plan to cut payroll by 30% next season. In October, the team took a reported $25 million loan from Major League Baseball to help with liquidity problems.
The Mets also have been embroiled in the Bernie Madoff scandal. The trustee acting on behalf of Madoff’s victims has claimed that the club took $90 million in fictitious profits from accounts it held with Madoff’s firm. The trustee, Irving Picard, is suing Wilpon’s firm Sterling Equities for $1 billion, claiming that Wilpon and his partners were beneficiaries of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
“We are very confident in the team’s plans — both off and on the field,” Wilpon said in a statement Thursday. “We will engage with other individuals, some who have been previously vetted by Major League Baseball, along with other interested parties, regarding a potential minority investment into the franchise.”
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The Mets suck anyway.