Mark Cuban, the Billionaire investor and the famous shark on the American TV show, Shark Tank, is selling a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and her family, a source familiar with the deal told CNBC. Cuban still owns a stake in the team and will run basketball operations.
“We have been advised by the Selling Stockholders that they currently intend to use the net proceeds from this offering, along with additional cash on hand, to fund the purchase of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise pursuant to a binding purchase agreement, subject to customary league approvals,” Las Vegas Sands said in the filing.
“Through our commitment and additional investment in the team, we look forward to partnering with Mark Cuban to build on the team’s success and legacy in Dallas and beyond,” said the statement. “The goal is to win and to have a team that proudly represents the greater DFW area and serves as a strong and valuable member of the local community.”
“As we consider our future capital return, we expect share repurchase will be more heavily weighted than dividends. We believe repurchases will be more accretive than dividends over time, as they reduce the denominator,” Patrick Dumont, Sands’ president and chief operating officer and Adelson’s son-in-law, said on the earnings call. “We fundamentally believe in the compounding long-term benefit of share repurchases.”
Why did Mark Cuban sell majority stakes in Dallas Mavericks?
The burning question Mavs fans and sports pundits are trying to get answered: Why these moves? Why back to back? Why now? What is going on?
In the case of his Shark Tank departure, Cuban told WFAA he wanted to spend more time with his family. After the Mavs sale began circulating in the news, however, people began speculating about other potential reasons.
“Just to spend more time with my kids,” he said. “They are 14, 17 and 20. I want to be able to spend summers with them before they are on their own.”
Nobody knows definitive reasons as to why did Cuban decide to sell the team. There are many speculations about his future once the transaction falls through.
Is Mark Cuban eyeing a potential career in USA politics?
The loudest “rumor” hitting the Internet is that Cuban is distancing himself from his other obligations to open himself up for a run for president. Another prominent theory is that he must be enduring some sort of health issue. However, each of these rumours were dispelled.
Sources close to Mark Cuban confirmed that to WFAA that his departure from “Shark Tank” and his reported sale of a stake in the Mavericks are neither the result of any health concerns nor anything to do with a desire to run for president.
Is Mark Cuban trying to bring sports-gambling and casinos to Texas?
It’s unclear at this point whether this is the main motivation, but the tea leaves of the situation seem to point this direction.
Consider who Cuban is selling the team to: Miriam Adelson and her step-son Patrick Dumont. But the main takeaway for the purposes of this article? She and their family made their money through their ownership and operation of the international casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Last year, while discussion long-term plans for the Mavericks, Cuban told Dallas Morning News that he wanted the Mavericks’ next home arena in Dallas to be “in the middle of a resort and casino.” He even specifically name-dropped that his “goal” would be to “partner with the Las Vegas Sands” in doing so.
For years now, and as recently as earlier this month, Mark Cuban has been vivid about his ambitious plans to legalise betting and casinos in Texas.
Las Vegas Sands has been advocating for the same in recent years, lobbying politicians in the process to little success. While Texas legislators have shown an openness to allowing sports gambling in the state, efforts to legalise casinos in Texas earlier this year failed to make it out of the Texas House of Representatives.
Who is Miriam Adelson; the future business partner of Mark Cuban and the future owner of Dallas Mavericks?
Miriam Adelson is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the former CEO and chairman of casino company Las Vegas Sands, who died at 87 in 2021.
She and her family now own more than half of the New York Stock Exchange-listed gambling empire, which has casinos in Singapore and Macao.
As GOP mega-donors, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson donated $180 Million to Republican campaigns and political action committees in 2020. Born in Israel, she became a medical doctor focusing on addiction.
In February 2022, Las Vegas Sands sold its assets on the Vegas Strip, the Venetian Resort and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, to Apollo Global and VICI Properties for $6.25 Billion.
