Billionaire Steve Cohen has entered into negotiations to purchase the New York Mets, hoping to salvage a deal for the franchise after a previous agreement to buy the team fell apart, a source familiar with the organization's sale confirmed to ESPN.
The emergence of Cohen as the winning bidder over a group led by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez came days before the process was expected to conclude. While the Rodriguez-Lopez consortium said in a statement that it had made "a fully funded offer at a record price for the team," its admission that "they are no longer pursuing the acquisition of the team" confirmed Cohen's inside track, which was first reported by CNBC on Friday night.