Mark Cuban is worth $3.9 billion - see how he earns and spends his massive fortune

Mark Abadi

Sep 22, 2018, 21:00 IST

Mark Cuban is worth $3.9 billion - see how he earns and spends his massive fortune

Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times

Mark Cuban has an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion.

Mark Cuban has an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion.
He's earned his fortune through a lifetime of business deals, including the $5.7 billion sale of Broadcast.com, his ownership of the Dallas Mavericks, and investments made on ABC's "Shark Tank."
Cuban has spent millions on private airplanes, a yacht, and a luxurious Dallas home, not to mention $2 million in fines from the NBA.
Cuban is in the news this week after an investigation into the Mavericks organization surfaced evidence of a hostile workplace for women. Cuban has pledged to donate $10 million to women's causes and domestic violence awareness.

Mark Cuban is one of the wealthiest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $3.9 billion according to Forbes.

The businessman and investor earned his fortune with a series of shrewd business deals starting in the 1990s, most notably the sale of his streaming site Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in stocks.

He bought the NBA's Dallas Mavericks in 2000 and helped transform them into a championship team.

And he's added to his empire with investments like the ones he makes each week on ABC's "Shark Tank," where he's been a regular for eight years.

Cuban is in the news this week after an investigation into the Mavericks organization surfaced evidence of a hostile workplace for women. Cuban has pledged to donate $10 million to women's causes and domestic violence awareness.

But $10 million isn't the fortune it sounds like to the billionaire. Over the years, he's spent his money on private planes, a 24,000-square-foot house, a $110,000 bar tab, and millions of dollars of fines from the NBA.

Read on to see how Cuban has earned - and spent - his fortune.

Mark Cuban is worth an estimated $3.9 billion, according to Forbes. That ranks him among the 250 richest people in America.

Cuban made his fortune over a lifetime of shrewd business deals. He's the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks …

… he's the co-founder of 2929 Entertainment, which owns the production companies behind films like "Akeelah and the Bee" and "Good Night and Good Luck" …

… and he's also a regular on ABC's "Shark Tank," in which hopeful entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of celebrity investors.

But Cuban made his fortune years before any of those ventures. He got his start in the early 1980s selling software for a company called Your Business Software.

In 1982, he started his own company, MicroSolutions, which he sold eight years later for $6 million. Cuban made $2 million off the deal.

But Cuban would really make his name with his next business venture: an Internet radio company called Audionet, which eventually became Broadcast.com.

Cuban took control of the company in 1995. The site streamed broadcasts of sports games, political conventions, and other events.

In 1999, Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com for a whopping $5.7 billion in stock. Cuban netted $1 billion when he sold his shares.

Around that time, Cuban bought a Gulfstream V business jet for $40 million. To this day, it holds the Guinness world record for the biggest purchase ever conducted over the internet.

Cuban called the plane one of the smartest purchases he's ever made. "It's obviously brutally expensive, but time is the one asset we simply don't own," he wrote for Men's Health. "It saves me hours and hours."

Coming off the heels of his billion-dollar payday, Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million in 2000.

He raised his profile by sitting courtside at Mavericks games and drew attention for his animated reactions and media outbursts.

Source: Orange County Register

His frequent criticisms of NBA refs have cost him a small fortune — the NBA has fined him close to $2 million for his comments and antics over the years.

Whenever Cuban gets fined by the NBA, he matches the punishment with a donation to charity of the same amount.

He's given to numerous charities over the years, including Autism Speaks, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, Cuban lent his private plane to Mavericks point guard and Puerto Rico native J.J. Barea to fly food, water, and supplies to the island.

In response to an NBA investigation — prompted by a February Sports Illustrated report — that unearthed evidence of the Mavericks organization having been a discriminatory and toxic workplace for women, Cuban pledged $10 million to women's causes and domestic violence awareness.

Today, Forbes estimates the Mavericks are worth $1.9 billion — more than $1.5 billion more than what Cuban paid for the team 18 years ago.

Cuban has done his fair share of spending. On top of the private airplane, in 1999 he paid $17.6 million for a 24,000-square-foot mansion in Dallas, where he and his family still live.

The 7-acre property reportedly features 10 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a tennis court, a swimming pool, and a separate guest house in the back.

He's neighbors with a who's who of famous Texans, including George W. Bush and Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.

When the Mavericks won the NBA championship in 2011, Cuban reportedly spent $110,000 on his team's bar tab that night. "Worth every penny," he told The New York Post.

The next year, Cuban chipped in $40,000 to save the local Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade when the group running the annual event ran out of funding. "You just can't let a Dallas tradition like that die," Cuban said.

Cuban leveraged his fame into a short-lived 2004 reality series called "The Benefactor," in which contestants competed to win $1 million of Cuban's money. However, the show was panned as a ripoff of "The Apprentice" and was cancelled after six episodes.

Another TV show he's on, "Shark Tank," has proven much more successful. It's now entering its 10th season.

Over the course of his eight-season stint on the show, Cuban has made close to 100 deals and has invested millions of dollars in startups and small businesses.

The largest deal he ever offered on the show came in 2015, when he proposed to buy the dating-app company Coffee Meets Bagel outright for $30 million. The owners rejected the deal.

Cuban said one of the best purchases he ever made was an unlimited first-class American Airlines ticket for $250,000 — a promotion that the airline offered from 1981 to 1994. Cuban and 25 other ticket-holders continue to enjoy free airfare for life.

Of course, considering he now owns two private jets and a yacht, first class might actually be a step down for Cuban.

Despite his sometimes lavish spending, Cuban keeps a frugal mentality much of the time. For example, he insists on buying items in bulk, especially items he knows he'll need such as razors and toothpaste.

And he advocates for people to achieve financial independence by paying off debt and stashing six months' worth of income in the bank.

It's a combination of relentless work ethic and financial smarts that have not only made Cuban one of the richest people in America, but kept him that way. As he once said, "Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you."

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