Yahoo Finance Mets Owner Steve Cohen Takes Sizable Stake in Sphere Entertainment
Steve Cohen continues to explore opportunities in the entertainment space.
Cohen, the hedge fund billionaire and owner of the New York Mets on Tuesday revealed that his firm, Point72 Capital, has taken a 5.5 percent stake in Sphere Entertainment Co., the company that owns and operates The Sphere in Las Vegas.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Sphere Las Vegas Has Big Plans for Independence Day: Debut of 'XO Audio' and 'XO Stream'
Former Warner Bros. COO Carolyn Blackwood Tapped as Head of Sphere Studios
Sphere Entertainment Ups Jennifer Koester to President and COO
According to a securities filing Monday afternoon, Point72 now owns over 1.5 million shares (including options), with a market value of over $50 million as of writing.
Cohen’s stake in the Sphere follows another significant investment in a media company with a heavy sports portfolio: Fox Corp. Point72 disclosed a 5 percent stake in Fox back in March, valued at about $350 million at the time.
Fox has bet heavily on live sports, and is in the drivers seat of the upcoming sports streaming joint venture with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Sphere, meanwhile, has leaned on live concerts, and will get into the sports business later this year with a live UFC fight.
One of Cohen’s firms also owns a significant stake in Range Media Partners, which is in the sports sector through its Range Sports business.
While Cohen is one of the most high-profile investors in the country (the character of Bobby “Axe” Axelrod in the Showtime series Billions is loosely based on Cohen), he is not known for running activist campaigns. Instead, Point72 is known for identifying opportunistic investments that other firms may have missed, and making large, concentrated bets on them.
Sphere, it should also be noted, is controlled by one of New York’s other sports team owners: James Dolan, who owns the New York Knicks NBA team and New York Rangers NHL team. Dolan also owns Madison Square Garden.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
