Mets owner Steve Cohen deactivates Twitter account amid ruckus around GameStop stock
Steve Cohen said the ongoing GameStop stock frenzy wouldn’t affect his ownership of the New York Mets. However, the situation has apparently led to the undoing of his Twitter account.
Cohen’s Twitter account, a method of outreach that had proven popular with Mets fans since the hedge fund billionaire purchased the team, was deactivated Friday night. Followers of the account were unable to load Cohen’s tweets when going to his page:
The Twitter account belonging to Mets owner Steve Cohen appears to no longer be active. pic.twitter.com/PwMepCPTIw
— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) January 30, 2021
Going to the URL of Cohen’s account yields even less, as the page simply reads “This account doesn’t exist.”
It’s entirely possibly Cohen’s account returns down the road, but for now, the question remains. Why would a billionaire abandon an easy and popular way to engage with fans?
Mets owner cites threats against family
Cohen released a statement Saturday, saying he deactivated his account after his family faced “personal threats,” according to MLB Network's Jon Heyman.
Cohen’s full statement read:
“I’ve really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family getting personal threats. So I’m going to take a break for now.
“We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to doing that. I love our team, this community, and our fans, who are the best in baseball. Bottom line is that this week’s events in no way affect our resources and drive to put a championship team
“On the field #LGM”
Cohen mentions “misinformation unrelated to the Mets,” which could be a reference to the GameStop’s stock situation.
Steve Cohen is done engaging on GameStop
Figuring out what’s happening with GameStop’s stock price, hedge funds and the subreddit /r/wallstreetbets takes some research, so here’s a decent explainer on the whole situation, which is evolving by the day. If you’re only joining us now, just know that thousands of Reddit users have banded together to jack up the stock price of a declining video game retailer for a potentially massive payday at the expense of the many hedge funds that had been betting against (shorting) the company.
One of those hedge funds is Melvin Capital Management, which had a large amount of money riding on Gamestop’s stock price declining, rather than increasing by more than 10-fold. Melvin’s losses were big enough to require a $2.75 billion injection from two other hedge funds, one being Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management.
And that’s where our billionaire enters the story.
Cohen’s intervention made him rather unpopular among those Reddit users and the people who have been enjoying the pain of hedge funds, and many let him hear about it on Twitter. One of those people was professional loud person Dave Portnoy, who called for prison time for Cohen and his cohorts, which led to a snippy exchange between blogger and billionaire.
Cohen, by far the richest owner in MLB, shrugged off worries that his own losses in the situation could affect the Mets’ payroll — it would take a lot to wipe out his $14 billion net worth — but the discourse around GameStop got bad enough that he was lamenting the lack of encouragement and defending his actions in some now-inaccessible tweets:
“I’m not feeling the love on this site today . Trading is a tough game. Don’t you think?”
”If I want to make an additional investment with somebody that is my right if it’s in the best interest of my investors”
The discourse apparently kept getting worse, to the point of threats against Cohen’s family. Andrew Left of Citron Capital, another notable GameStop short-seller, has complained of threats against his children.
We’ll see if Cohen eventually returns to Twitter, but it’s clear he has bigger fish to fry right now.
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