Steve Cohen Shuts Down Twitter Account After Receiving Threats

Yueqi Yang

01 Feb 2021, 02:38 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Steve Cohen, the billionaire founder of investment firm Point72 Asset Management and owner of the New York Mets, said he closed his Twitter account after his family received personal threats this week.

“I’ve really enjoyed the back and forth with Mets fans on Twitter which was unfortunately overtaken this week by misinformation unrelated to the Mets that led to our family getting personal threats,” Cohen said in a statement Saturday.

“So I’m going to take a break for now. We have other ways to listen to your suggestions and remain committed to doing that.”

Point72 was among the hedge funds losing to Reddit traders who banded together to boost the stock of GameStop Corp. The fund declined 10% to 15% so far this month, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News earlier this week. The loss came as Point72 injected $750 million into Melvin Capital, which saw its short bets on stocks including GameStop go awry.

Cohen extended his fame in the investing world to Twitter stardom after joining the social platform to chat with Mets fans after buying the team in 2020 for about $2.4 billion.

As his hedge fund’s bet made him a target by angry Reddit traders, he complained about the “rough crowd” on Twitter in a recent tweet.

On Thursday, Cohen got into a heated Twitter exchange with Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, who blasted Point72, hedge fund Citadel and brokerage platform Robinhood for their roles in GameStop trades.

Cohen tweeted back to Portnoy, saying, “Hey Dave, What’s your beef with me. I’m just trying to make a living just like you. Happy to take this offline.”

“I don’t do offline,” Portnoy replied.

Cohen wasn’t the only Wall Street name facing personal threats amid the speculative frenzy in GameStop by retail investors. Andrew Left of Citron Research also said he was threatened for his short call on the video game retailer. Citron announced on Friday it will no longer publish short selling research.

“I love our team, this community, and our fans, who are the best in baseball,” Cohen said in the statement from the Mets. “Bottom line is that this week’s events in no way affect our resources and drive to put a championship team on the field. #LGM!”