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Add Steven Cohen to the list of really rich guys interested in buying the team, reports the WSJ. Cohen is said to be working with Steve Greenberg, an investment banker with Allen & Co. who has close ties to Major League Baseball (he was deputy commissioner for a while). If this were a regular franchise sale, baseball executives might be put off by Cohen's firm, SAC Capital Advisors, coming up in connection with a wide-ranging federal investigation into insider trading (there have been no accusations of wrongdoing). But MLB isn't running the show this time - the U.S. bankruptcy court is, in conjunction with current owner Frank McCourt. From the Journal:
Normally, any link to such an investigation, no matter how peripheral, could spell trouble for a bidder under MLB's approval process, according to the people familiar with the matter. But, if the Dodgers current owner, Frank McCourt, and his financial advisers determine that MLB is unjustifiably eliminating someone who could potentially submit a large offer, it can challenge that decision in court--something it wouldn't be able to do if the team weren't in bankruptcy proceedings.
Bid books are expected to be distributed soon after Thanksgiving, reports the Journal, and the first round of bidding is planned for January. But the sale could take many more months to resolve. Adding to the complexity: McCourt wants to market the media rights as part of the auction process. Fox had offered the team a 17-year extension valued at $2.7 billion, but the deal was rejected by the league. Fox claims that it has exclusive rights to negotiate a new deal, but McCourt wants to open up the bidding to all comers.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.