Hedge Fund Manager Steven Cohen Plans Dodgers Bid; Fox Files New Papers In TV Suit

SAC Capital Advisors Founder Steven Cohen is "planning a bid" for the Dodgers, according to sources cited by Futterman & Zuckerman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Sources said that Cohen "has been discussing the bid with" Allen & Co. Managing Dir and former MLB Deputy Commissioner Steve Greenberg, who is helping broker the sale. Cohen has "close ties to the leaders" of MLB. Federal court documents indicate that Cohen's firm has "surfaced repeatedly in a wide federal investigation into insider trading." But there have been "no accusations of wrongdoing against either Mr. Cohen or SAC Capital Advisors." Sources said that normally "any link to such an investigation, no matter how peripheral, could spell trouble for a bidder under MLB's approval process." Sources also said that MLB plans to "size up potential bidders during the next six weeks." Bid books "are scheduled to be distributed shortly after Thanksgiving, with the first round of bidding planned for early January" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/25).

TV TALK: Fox Sports Wednesday argued in a court filing that if outgoing Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt "wants to boost the sale price of the Dodgers, he ought to include the Dodger Stadium parking lots in the sale instead of tearing up an existing contract with" the RSN. In L.A., Bill Shaikin noted Fox again "urged the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to deny McCourt's proposal to market the team's television rights as part of the sale process." The creditors' committee on Wednesday "supported the Dodgers' bid to market their television rights." When McCourt initially proposed an early auction of the Dodgers' television rights, "he was opposed by his ex-wife, the creditors, Major League Baseball and Fox." Now that McCourt "has agreed to sell the Dodgers, he has neutralized all of those parties except for Fox" (L.A. TIMES, 11/24).