For suffering Met like myself, we’re hoping that this guy someday free us from the Wilpoms. Also I have theory that Einhorn may have a lot to say whether or not players like Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran stay with the team. Why pay $200 mil and then break up the team?
New York Post
The debt-ridden Mets have agreed to sell less than 49 percent of the team for $200 million to a Manhattan hedge-fund manager, the team announced today.
David Einhorn, who is president of Greenlight Capital Inc., will buy the minority stake in the franchise pending approval from Major League Baseball.
“Having an opportunity to become part of the Mets franchise is exciting beyond my wildest childhood dreams. I spent my first seven years living in New Jersey and rooting for the Mets," Einhorn said.
"In 1975, I even dressed in a homemade jersey as a Met for Halloween. I have been a baseball fan for my entire life and have enjoyed teaching the game as the coach of my daughter’s little league team."
The Mets lost $51 million last season and expect to lose upwards of $70 million this season.
The team was hoping to close on a deal by June 30 so it could use the investment cash to fund day-to-day operations and repay some debt. The Mets took a $30 million emergency loan from MLB last year.
MLB pressured Sterling Enterprises, which owns the team, to raise money after it lost $500 million in Bernie Madoff's funds and found it difficult to bankroll the franchise.
Fred Wipon, principal owner of the Mets said of Einhorn "Equally important, David’s intelligence, integrity and success in both business and civic affairs provides us with another perspective in evaluating what is best for this organization and our fans, and we welcome his input. In partnership with David, we look forward to achieving our ultimate goal of again becoming World Series champions."
Einhorn co-founded Greenlight Capital in 1996 and is also the author of the book "Fooling Some Of The People All Of The Time," which detailed his battle with the investment firm Allied Capital.
"I look forward to partnering with the Wilpon and Katz families through the good seasons, the tough seasons and especially the championship seasons,” Einhorn said.
Also in New York Post
The man who's on the verge of owning part of the Mets is a shrewd investor who doesn't back down from controversial calls.
In 2002, David Einhorn went public with his doubts about Allied Capital and bet the stock would fall.
Then he withstood a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into whether he was conspiring to drive down the company's stock, Allied stealing his phone records, and then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer promising his own inquiry, New York magazine reported.
Einhorn didn't give up and ultimately Allied was exposed and its stock collapsed
The episode was the basis for his book "Fooling Some of the People all of the Time," which also pointed out the daunting issues investors face.
He also doubted that Lehman Brothers was forthcoming about its finances, something he made clear in a call with the company's chief financial officer, the magazine reported.
"The conversation was reminiscent of the ones I had with Allied," Einhorn told the magazine in 2008. "We had our questions, we were organized, but she was evasive, dishonest. Their explanations didn’t make any sense."
Lehman later failed. Einhorn had shorted the stock, a bet against it.
Just yesterday he went after Microsoft, saying it's time for CEO Steve Balmer to go.
"Ballmer's continued presence is ruining your stock," he said, according to Business Insider.
But he doesn't always wager against companies.
Filings this month showed that he bought GM shares.
And he's long been an Apple fan, holding 837,500 shares of the high-flying stock, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Einhorn clearly has been a baseball fan for some time. In the first letter to investors in his Greenlight Capital, he and then partner Jeffrey Keswin signed off with a quote from Ken Griffey Jr.
"I don't consider myself a home-run hitter. But when I'm seeing the ball and hitting it hard, it will go out of the park."
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