#Steve Cohen closes in on buying Mets

The billionaire won the bidding on the right to purchase the team, according to The Post’s Thornton McEnery. Cohen is now in exclusive negotiations with the Wilpons and Katz families to complete the purchase.

The group that posed the greatest threat to Cohen — led by former Yankee Alex Rodriguez and entertainer Jennifer Lopez — announced it pulled out of the process late Friday night.

This is Cohen’s second chance to purchase the team for which he is a fan. He saw a deal with the Wilpons fall through in February because the current owners wanted to maintain organizational control for five years. Team COO Jeff Wilpon, who complicated the initial deal worth $2.6 billion, was not part of negotiations the second time around, The Post reported.

Cohen was expected to bid more than $2 billion this time and beat out a group led by Rodriguez and Lopez and another by 76ers and Devils owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer.

“The consortium led by Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez has informed the Mets that they are no longer pursuing the acquisition of the team,” the group said in a statement. “The consortium, which included Vincent Viola, Mike Repole, and Marc Lore had submitted a fully funded offer at a record price for the team which was supported by binding debit commitments from JP Morgan and equity commitment letters from creditworthy partners.”

Lopez expressed her disappointment on Twitter.

“Alex and I are so disappointed!!” she wrote. “We worked so hard the past 6 months with the dream of becoming the first minority couple and the first woman owner to buy her father’s favorite Major League Baseball team with her own hard earned money. We still haven’t given up!! #NYForever”