Steve Cohen, owner of New York Mets, is taking a “break” from Twitter after saying his family received personal threats this week amid an ongoing standoff between day traders and hedge funds.
“I really enjoyed going back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter, which unfortunately this week was overtaken by misinformation unrelated to the Mets, which left our family with personal threats,” Cohen said in a statement Saturday after he deactivated his account on Friday evening. “So I’m taking a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and will continue to commit to them. I love our team, this community, and our fans, who are the best at baseball. In short, that’s the events of this one. week in no way affect our resources and drive to pitch a champion team. ”
Cohen’s decision to move away from Twitter appears to stem from a conflict between independent investors and hedge funds. Day traders, mobilized on Reddit, have put all the money they can find into the stock of struggling video game retailer GameStop and a few other defeated companies. Their purchases have driven the stock prices of those companies up unimaginably and inflicted enormous losses on the hedge funds that had placed bets that the shares would fall.
Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management got involved when it invested in Melvin Capital Management, a hedge fund that had bet heavily on GameStop and attracted the ire of Reddit users.
GameStop shot up nearly 70% on Friday to close at $ 325. Over the past three weeks, the stock has delivered a staggering 1,600% gain. The danger to the day traders is that the stocks can collapse at any time.
Before closing his Twitter account, Cohen – the richest baseball owner worth over $ 14.5 billion – responded to the controversy Tuesday by tweeting, “Rough audience on Twitter tonight. Hey stock jockeys, keep bringing it.”
Among Cohen’s critics, WFAN morning host and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason said he would stop going to Mets games “until I know exactly what’s going on here” in regards to Cohen’s involvement in the GameStop. situation.
The owner of Mets had previously amassed nearly 200,000 followers on Twitter for his irreverent interactions with fans, where he took suggestions on how to lead the team, responded to the team’s biggest moves – like the exchange for shortstop Francisco Lindor – and teased a return of black jerseys.
ESPN’s Joon Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.