Mark Cuban is worth $3.9 billion - see how he earns and spends his massive 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 …
Source: Forbes
… 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" …
Source: Biography
… and he's also a regular on ABC's "Shark Tank," in which hopeful entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of celebrity investors.
Source: ABC
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.
Source: CNBC
In 1982, he started his own company, MicroSolutions, which he sold eight years later for $6 million. Cuban made $2 million off the deal.
Source: CNBC
But Cuban would really make his name with his next business venture: an Internet radio company called Audionet, which eventually became Broadcast.com.
Source: Biography
Cuban took control of the company in 1995. The site streamed broadcasts of sports games, political conventions, and other events.
Source: Biography
In 1999, Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com for a whopping $5.7 billion in stock. Cuban netted $1 billion when he sold his shares.
Source: CNN
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.
Source: Guinness World Records
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."
Source: Men's Health
Coming off the heels of his billion-dollar payday, Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million in 2000.
Source: Biography
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.
Source: Dallas Business Journal
Whenever Cuban gets fined by the NBA, he matches the punishment with a donation to charity of the same amount.
Source: ESPN
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.
Source: Look to the Stars
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.
Source: ESPN via Business Insider
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.
Source: Sports Illustrated, Associated Press
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.
Source: Forbes
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.
Source: D Magazine
The 7-acre property reportedly features 10 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a tennis court, a swimming pool, and a separate guest house in the back.
Source: Forbes
He's neighbors with a who's who of famous Texans, including George W. Bush and Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki.
Source: Forbes
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.
Source: 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.
Source: KXAS-TV
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.
Source: IMDB
Another TV show he's on, "Shark Tank," has proven much more successful. It's now entering its 10th season.
Source: ABC
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.
Source: Sharkalytics
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.
Source: Business Insider
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.
Source: The Hustle
Of course, considering he now owns two private jets and a yacht, first class might actually be a step down for Cuban.
Source: Dallas News
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.
Source: NPR
And he advocates for people to achieve financial independence by paying off debt and stashing six months' worth of income in the bank.
Source: Entrepreneur
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."
Source: Inc.
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