New York Mets owner Steve Cohen taking ‘break’ from Twitter following threats tied to stock flurry

New York Mets Steve Cohen, the owner, took a “break” on Twitter after saying that his family received personal threats this week amid the ongoing stock trading dilemma between day traders and hedge funds.

“I really enjoyed the Mets fans as we faced misinformation on Twitter this week that had nothing to do with Mets,” Cohen said on Saturday after deactivating his account on Friday night. “So I’m going to take a break for now. There are other ways to listen to your suggestions and stick to it. I love our team, this community, and our fans who are the best in baseball. As a result, this week’s events do not affect our resources in any way and are an effort to put a championship team on the field.”

Cohen’s decision to leave Twitter appears to be due to a conflict between independent investors and hedge funds. Day traders taking action on Reddit transferred all the money they could find to stocks of the struggling video game retailer GameStop and several other companies. Their acquisitions increased the stock prices of these companies in ways no one could imagine, and gave hedge funds huge losses, placing bets that their stocks would fall.

Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management stepped in when he gave a $ 750 million infusion to Melvin Capital Management, a hedge fund that was heavily betting against GameStop and attracted the anger of Reddit users.

GameStop closed at $ 325 on Friday, rocketing about 70%. The stock has gained a staggering 1,600% over the past three weeks. The danger for day traders is that stocks can fall at any time.

Before closing his Twitter account, Cohen, who is baseball’s wealthiest owner, worth more than $ 14.5 billion, responded to the debate by tweeting on Tuesday: “Tonight, the crowd on Twitter. Hey stock jockeys, keep bringing it.”

Among Cohen’s critics, WFAN morning host and former NFL playmaker Boomer Esiason said about Cohen’s involvement in the GameStop situation that he would stop going to the Mets games “until we find out exactly what’s going on here”.

The Mets owner had won a Twitter after nearly 200,000 for his previous disrespectful interactions with his fans, where he received suggestions on how to run the team and reacted to the team’s biggest moves – such as swapping shorts. Francisco lindor – and made fun of returning black jerseys.

Cohen first bought a stake in Mets in 2012. Last year, it gained 95% ownership in a deal that valued the club of $ 2.4 billion, a record selling price for a Major League Baseball team.

ESPN’s Joon Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.