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Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He’s currently a shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, which premieres on October 7.
Cuban is a self-made billionaire. He grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a middle-class family. As a kid, he sold garbage bags door-to-door and even gave dance lessons to help pay his way through college.
These days, Cuban doesn’t need to sell garbage bags — although he might if he saw solid opportunity to make a profit. He’s found himself on Forbes’ billionaire’s list, coming in at No. 606 in 2018.
Mark Cuban Net Worth: $3.9 Billion
Mark Cuban’s estimated net worth is $3.9 billion, according to Forbes. Aside from wheeling and dealing on Shark Tank, Cuban is the owner of an NBA team, the owner of the film distributor Magnolia Pictures, and the CEO of AXS TV. He is the only shark whose net worth is in the billions.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. He’s Been on ‘Shark Tank’ Since 2011 & Has Made More Than 85 Deals Over the Past 10 Seasons
According to Shark Tank-tracking site Sharkalytics, Cuban has invested in a total of 85 deals across his 10 years on the show. Those investments add up to a grand total of nearly $20 million, averaging $233,529 per deal.
Cuban’s 85 deals come from seeing 443 pitches, giving him a 19 percent rate of investment. Those 443 pitches stretch across 111 episodes, meaning he makes a deal 76 percent of the times he appears on the show.
According to Sharkalytics, the largest investment Cuban has made on Shark Tank was a whopping $2 million. That deal nabbed him a 20 percent stake in Ten Thirty One Productions, a company that puts on love horror attractions. Cuban’s investment in Ten Thirty One was nearly 10 times the size of his average investment, $233,529, but was surprisingly in line with the typical equity stake he takes in his deals, 23 percent.
Cuban’s average equity stake could be related to another interesting statistic: just over half of his deals (43 out of 85) are made in conjunction with another shark. With 12 deals shared between them, his most frequent collaborator is Robert Herjavec.
2. He Currently Owns the Dallas Mavericks & Tried to Buy the Chicago Cubs for $1.3 Billion in 2008
Cuban has had a majority stake in the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks for nearly two decades. His tenure as owner has seen the team turn around from perennial losers to contenders and league champions.
“Cuban reached an agreement to pay $285 million for the Mavericks on Jan. 4, 2000. The Mavericks’ rise from league laughingstock to one of the NBA’s elite since then has been a wild ride, with Cuban leading the way in his uniquely brash, charismatic, energetic, occasionally obnoxious, always heavily involved manner,” ESPN reported on the 10-year anniversary of the sale.
Cuban’s time as owner of the Mavericks has seen the team shift from losing more games than they win to playing in the NBA Finals in 2006. After opening the series up 2-0, they lost four consecutive games to Shaquille O’Neal, Dwyane Wade and the rest of the Miami Heat. But Cuban’s team would get its revenge five years later: the Mavericks defeated the Heat 4-2 to become the 2011 NBA Champions.
His involvement with the NBA has not been without controversy. Cuban has been fined in excess of $2.5 million during his time as Dallas’ owner. Most recently, he was fined $600,000 for suggesting his team should “tank” the remained of the 2017-18 season, according to the New York Times.
Ten years ago, Cuban attempted to expand his empire into Major League Baseball; he was one of three bidders for the Chicago Cubs in 2006, ESPN reported. The team eventually went to the Ricketts family; Joe Ricketts is the founder of online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.
3. He Wrote an E-Book Called ‘How to Win at the Sport of Business’ & Is the CEO of AXS TV
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Back in 2011, Cuban decided to share some of his business strategies with the world. He released an e-book called How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It, which was available for $2.99. The book is currently available for digital download on Amazon for about $4. The book has received a 4.5-star rating.
“I have been blogging for 7 years. I have gotten a ton of requests to write a book. I had resisted because of all the work that comes with distributing a traditional book. With the revolution in book economics, it allowed me to price the book at under 3 dollars and sell it leveraging social media rather than going on a book tour. Plus the ebook format let me take all my blog topics and pull them together in an easy to read and enjoy presentation. It just made sense to do it now,” Cuban told Forbes of his decision to pen the e-book.
Cuban is also the CEO of AXS TV. The best part of the gig? Meeting and working with “amazing people,” Cuban says. You can watch him talk about AXS TV in the video below.
4. He Co-Founded Broadcast.com in 1995 & Sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 Billion in 1999
In 1994, Cuban and partner Todd Wagner were introduced to Chris Jaeb, who’d founded Cameron Audio Networks with the intention of broadcasting sports games audio over the internet. According to an interview with Jaeb by Mixergy, the three worked out a deal whereby Jaeb received a salary and held onto 10 percent of the company, but Cuban would take control. That company, renamed AudioNet.com in 1995, branched out from broadcasting sporting events to include political events and other activities.
In 1998, the company was renamed Broadcast.com and went public. Its initial public offering began with shares trading at $18; they reached as high as $74/share and closed at $62.75, more than triple the opening price, according to CNET. A year later, internet giant Yahoo! came calling and acquired Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion, making it the company’s largest purchase ever.
“Yahoo’s biggest acquisition to date took place in 1999 with its purchase of internet video streaming service Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion. Yahoo promised to “integrate the company’s audio and video programming, business services and advertising programs into Yahoo,” then Yahoo president Jeff Mallett told CNET at the time. Looks like that plan fell through, as Broadcast.com is no more. But it certainly made its founders rich, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban,” Forbes reported.
5. He Offered to Give $10 Million to a Charity of Donald Trump’s Choice if Trump Agreed to a Sit-Down With Him
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In 2016, Cuban made an offer to then-candidate Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2016 Presidential Election: if Trump agreed to sit down with Cuban for four hours to discuss his “policies and their substance,” Cuban would donate $10 million to the charity of Trump’s choice, Forbes reported. The challenge came in response to Trump’s contention that Cuban was not sufficiently intelligent to understand said policies.
“Cuban issued his challenge to Trump on Twitter Friday. Cuban, whose net worth Forbes estimates is $3.3 billion, is a prolific Twitter user and an outspoken critic of Trump’s campaign. After the initial challenge, Cuban said he could instead write Trump a personal check for the money instead of giving it to a charity, if Trump needed it. (Earlier this summer, Cuban raised doubts about Trump’s net worth, saying in a tweet that Trump didn’t have the cash to support his campaign),” Forbes reported.
Cuban was initially excited at the prospect of Trump’s presidential run, saying he appreciated his “honesty.”
“What I didn’t realize he was missing at the time was a complete and utter lack of preparation, knowledge, and common sense,” Cuban said, via email, to Bloomberg.
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