Steven A. Cohen
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Steve Cohen, founder of the Point72 hedge fund and owner of the New York Mets, has disabled his Twitter account after his family received threats this week amid the GameStop business frenzy.
“I really enjoyed coming and going with Mets fans on Twitter, which unfortunately was overwhelmed this week by the misinformation that had nothing to do with the Mets that caused our family to receive personal threats,” Cohen said Saturday .
“So I’ll take a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and stay committed to doing so,” he said.
Cohen’s hedge fund, which manages nearly $ 19 billion in assets, lost nearly 15 percent this year after small investors pushed for an increase in shares of video game retailer GameStop, a source said familiar with the subject in the New York Times.
The losses on Point72 are mainly due to the company’s investment in hedge fund Melvin Capital, which bet against GameStop and had to receive about $ 3 billion in emergency cash from two external investors, one of whom was Point72.
Cohen, who bought the Mets for about $ 2.5 billion in November, clashed on Twitter about how Melvin’s losses would affect the baseball team.
Cohen on Thursday also took part in a round trip with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on Twitter after Portnoy accused Cohen of engaging with controversial commercial restrictions on GameStop on apps like Robinhood.