Hedge-fund honcho David Einhorn thought he had a good-faith deal to buy into the Mets until co-owner Fred Wilpon (above) backed out yesterday. (Paul J. Bereswill)
David Einhorn just got beaned by Mr. Met.
The hedge-fund titan’s bid to buy part of the cash-strapped New York Mets for $200 million was batted down yesterday by team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, who worried that the deal could eventually give Einhorn control of the team.
In a collapse that mirrored one of the hapless team’s trademark September crashes, Einhorn said the deal he thought was finalized in May started breaking down late last week when the Mets owners made “extensive” last-minute changes.
One of the major sticking points was a provision that would have allowed him to acquire a controlling stake in the team if he wasn’t repaid his investment in five years.
“The [Major League Baseball] commissioner assured me this should be no problem,” Einhorn said. “And I didn’t hear another word about it until late last week.”
Einhorn was angry and bitter about the curveballs.
“I was surprised. I was very surprised,” he said in conference call.
“It was a dream come true for me and my family. This is a sad outcome.”
The Mets owners met Einhorn yesterday at their Midtown offices to officially end the negotiations, a source said.
The team rushed out their press release as he was leaving the building.
The busted deal was a sudden blow to Einhorn, a lifelong fan of the Amazin’s who went to a Mets game earlier in the week and acted like nothing was wrong, a source close to the team said.
“I don’t think Einhorn saw this coming,” the source said. “Why would he have come to the game on Tuesday with his entourage if he knew this was going to happen?”
This late-inning end to Einhorn’s talks with the Mets came after he was portrayed as the team’s white knight when the deal was first announced last May.
Einhorn, 42, whose Greenlight Capital firm manages $7.8 billion in assets, was going to give the Wilpon family and the Mets the $200 million injection of funds in exchange for a 17 percent stake in the team.
The money was needed after the Mets owners got caught up in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and were sued for $1 billion by Madoff victim trustee Irving Picard.
It wasn’t just a financial deal for Einhorn, who is known as a hard-nosed hedge-fund guru.
Einhorn said he is a die-hard Mets fan and a chance to buy a slice of the team was “beyond my wildest childhood dreams.”
But the warm feelings between Einhorn and the Mets were soured by cold business calculations.
He said the Mets jerked him around starting in July, when he allowed the exclusive negotiation period to expire in good faith — with the assumption that they were on firm footing.
“I received repeated assurances by the Mets’ investment bankers that we had a deal,” he said. And at that point, he believed “there were no outstanding issues with either the Mets or the banks.”
The Mets in turn began talking to other bidders, he said.
“While I tried to be understanding . . . their action gave me cause for concern,” he said.
Baseball sources told The Post, however, that the Mets did not want to agree to the Einhorn deal and risk losing the team because they felt they were in a much better financial position than a few months ago.
“Fred always wanted to keep [the Mets in the family], and this Einhorn deal wasn’t going to give him that option,” said a source familiar with the talks.
Instead of looking at a $1 billion loss to Picard, after a series of positive court rulings, they now believe they will have to pay no more than $300 million.
Sources close to the Mets described the hedge-fund manager as a inveterate “poker player” who “totally overplayed his hand” by pushing for clauses that positioned him to take over team control.
“What [Einhorn] did was misread Fred and Saul’s position as a sign of weakness, and he totally overplayed his hand,” said one source close to the Mets organization.
The team’s owner released a statement yesterday, saying that they would continue to look for other investors.
“We are very confident in the team’s plans — both off and on the field,” Wilpon said in the statement.
“We will engage with other individuals, some who have been previously vetted by Major League Baseball, along with other interested parties, regarding a potential minority investment into the franchise.”
Additional reporting by Dan Martin and Joel Sherman