Billionaire Steve Cohen sees four-day work week coming
Billionaire Steve Cohen said he expects that more businesses will move to a four-day work week, one of the reasons he has made investments in golf.
“My belief is that a fourday work week is coming,” Mr. Cohen, the founder of Point72 Asset Management and owner of the New York Mets, said in his first-ever interview on CNBC. “That fits into a theme of more leisure for people.”
Mr. Cohen, an avid golfer, said multiple forces were pushing the world toward fewer work days, including the advent of artificial intelligence. More companies allowing hybrid working means “that people are not as productive on Fridays.”
Mr. Cohen is part of a consortium that recently agreed to invest up to $3 billion in an entity controlled by the PGA Tour. The deal, with a slew of investors including fellow billionaire Marc Lasry and Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, is in a new commercial entity that will give some players an equity stake. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is in ongoing discussions to potentially invest.
Mr. Cohen is also a team owner in a simulator-based golf league funded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
He said he’d keep his own traders and portfolio managers working five days a week. “Taking off Friday when you have a portfolio — that would be a problem,” he said.
In the wide-ranging interview, Mr. Cohen, who has historically avoided press interviews, spoke about the future of the Mets, his plans for a casino and entertainment center next to the team’s Citi Field, and his outlook on investments.
He compared running the team with operating his $32 billion hedge fund, saying in both cases that he gives his employees “a lot of rope” to make decisions.