Allen & Company, the firm handling the sale of the Mets, has set July 9 as the date for groups to submit bids, reports Charles Gasparino of Fox Business.
According to Gasparino, those interested in bidding include billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, who was deep in negotiations to purchase the team in February before talks broke down.
In addition to Cohen, other interested parties include the group led by Mike Repole, Alex Rodriguez, and Jennifer Lopez, and the one fronted by Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
It was recently reported by Scott Soshnick of Sportico that seven groups interested in purchasing the Mets had been pre-approved by MLB as qualified bidders.
According to Soshnick, the Mets are hoping to complete the sale by the end of the year.
In addition to the potential bidders above, billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben have also reportedly been interested, but Soshnick reported last week that their interest may revolve more around real estate opportunities than the team.
Mets COO Jeff Wilpon gave an update on June 11 regarding the potential sale of the team.
"The team will have some kind of transaction," Wilpon said during a panel for the UJA-Federation of New York, according to Yaron Weitzman of Bleacher Report. "I can't tell you exactly what it's going to be and how it's going to look, but we're working towards a transaction and there's four or five suitors that are out there to do something with and a bunch of philanthropic planning and family planning that my dad and my uncle want to do. And it's totally fine. And when we have something to truly announce and tell you about, we'll do that. Not going to play the speculation game or get in any kind of competition with Page Six or Variety Magazine."
On Feb. 6, after Cohen announced that his deal to become majority owner had fallen through, Sterling Partners released a statement citing the "highly complicated" transaction they had been attempting with Cohen and adding that Sterling intended to "pursue a new transaction and has engaged Allen & Company to manage that process."
A report in the New York Times shed light on the snag the potential deal hit after it had been reported that Cohen was close to walking away from the table.
MLB -- non-Mets -- sources with knowledge of the Cohen negotiation said it wasn't the five-year transition of power that was at issue, SNY's Andy Martino reported, saying that part of the transaction was a done deal in writing months before talks broke down.
Bloomberg reported that in the wake of the failed negotiations with Cohen, there would be "no preconditions regarding control of the team" as part of the next attempted sale, meaning the next majority owner would likely have full control once the sale is complete.
Fred Wilpon has been the majority owner of the Mets since 2002, when he bought out Nelson Doubleday.
Doubleday and Company and Wilpon purchased the Mets from the Payson family in January of 1980.