One of the investors is Steven A. Cohen, a hedge fund wizard. The others - in a rather striking development given the latest stated plan of the Mets’ owners - would be the team’s partners in the SNY cable network.
Time Warner Cable and Comcast are nearing a plan to finance SNY’s purchase of four shares in the Mets, worth $80 million, said one person with knowledge of the plan who was not authorized to speak publicly.
If the deal is completed, the Mets would appear to have buyers for the 10 shares they are selling.
That means they will have much-needed cash to pay off their substantial debts. But it would be a slightly quirky way of doing it. The deal would mean 16 percent of the Mets would be owned by SNY. The Mets’ parent company, Sterling Equities, owns 70 percent of the network.
NYT: Financial Relief for Mets May
One way to view this (which would erroneously value the team at 0) is that Comcast and Time Warner are each buying back 5.6% of SNY from Sterling for $40M each. Clearly, the team, despite its financial struggles, has a monetary value, but its interesting to see Comcast & Time Warner buying back equity in SNY.
