Mark Cuban Mouths Off Again

Mark Cuban Fined $100K (via FanIQ)

  Commissioner David Stern fined Mark Cuban $100,000 for approaching referees with inappropriate language after the Mavs blew a 17-point lead to the Clippers this past Wednesday with a loss of 129-127.   After Cuban was slapped with the fine,…

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BTW, of course Mark Cuban wins his insider trading case

Basketball team owner, (alleged) insider trader, entrepreneur and charmer of Texas juries with many women says after his aquital:
 
"I am glad this happened to me," Cuban told The Wall Street Journal. "I am glad I am wealthy enough to stand up to the SEC."

The insider-trading case against Mark Cuban goes to trial

The insider-trading case against Mark Cuban goes to trial


The billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, goes to trial where he is accused of using insider information sell stock in an Internet company in 2004 before the shares fell dramatically. Cuban avoided $750,000 in losses to live the lifestyle he is accustomed to living in the Big D.

Billionaire Baller Goes Negative on Bracelets

Facebook: A Dog with Fleas

Gordon Gekko to Bud Fox - Wall Street (1987)

"Not bad, but that's a dog with different fleas."

The stock is in a nose-dive. The CEO is offering Wall Street no guidance on future operating expectations. People are now calling the company FaceBerg. Investors feel "Zucker-punched." Mark Cuban exited the stock weeks ago with a $200k hit to his personal balance sheet. The last minute over-pricing of the Facebook IPO (as recommended by the Facebook CFO) now looks like an exercise in pure greed.

But, nevertheless, and in the interest of fair reporting and commentary, the stock and the company still has fans. This is what passes for sophisticated financial analysis on Wall Street these days:

"The company's user base currently comprises the third-largest country in the world, and its emphasis on mobile platforms suggests to us that it can become the largest country in the world in a matter of years. Facebook has immense value, which may not be readily apparent from its near term earnings, but which is substantial nonetheless." - Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter

Has Mark Cuban Hedged His Facebook Position?

Has Mark Cuban Hedged His Facebook Position?


There are five (correct) answers to this question. They are (in no particular order):

a. who knows?
b. he'd be stupid if he wasn't
c. Broadcast.com
d. Yep, he's gotta to be
e. Yes, his silence (no posts or tweets) on this means only one thing

First, let's take a look at Mark Cuban's current (disclosed) Facebook position---

(Long) 150,000 shares; average cost per share $32.49; total cost $4,873,500

Based on a 6/1/12 FB close at $27.72, Cuban looks like he is sitting on a net (paper) loss of $715,500.

Do we begin to worry and feel sorry for Mark Cuban and his Facebook trade? No, because we only can see his paper loss. No, because he already told us this is a trade, not a long term investment. No, because with an original FB position of nearly $5 million, he has a vested interest in monitoring trade. No, because Mark Cuban doesn't like to lose money. No, because Mark Cuban isn't stupid.

Back in 1995 Mark Cuban and partner created Broadcast.com, a multimedia company. Years later they sold the company to Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in 1999. But, Cuban then owned restricted Yahoo! stock that was locked up. Cuban was at risk owning (temporarily) illiquid Yahoo stock. Cuban was at substantial risk. Cuban didn't want to accept that risk. Mark Cuban wanted to transfer that risk to the options market. So, Cuban says he "hedged my stock with synthetic indexes, in case the market cratered in the six months before I could hedge my actual Yahoo shares. It cost me $20 million, but I protected what I had." (Fast Company, September 30, 2002).

In January 2000, Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks, NBA franchise.

In May 2012, Cuban bought a little under $5 million of Facebook stock.

Mark Cuban is hedged.

More Facebook Lawsuits

As predicted by Think Billions, more lawsuits against Facebook

Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB): Milberg LLP Announces Class Action Lawsuits Filed Against Facebook, Inc. | Mesh Press

The complaints charge Facebook, certain of its officers and directors, and underwriters of the IPO with violations of the Securities Act of 1933.

Zuckers!

Mark Cuban, Facebook Speculator

Mark Cuban, last week, purchased nearly $5 million of Facebook stock as a short-term speculative trade.

Cuban sees it this way: “It’s a trade, not an investment. Kind of like buying a Mickey Mantle, a Hank Aaron and a Barry Bonds rookie card knowing there is a card show in town next week.”

Mark Cuban backs away from the Dodgers Roulette table

Yes, you heard correctly, Mark Cuban has done the smart thing.

Mark Cuban, the savvy basketball billionaire businessman that he is, has backed away from the insanity that is becoming the legalized gambling and bidding contest for the LosAngeles-DivorceCourt-ChavezRevene-MattKempGotScrewed-Dodgers.

This ownership battle is no longer about baseball or watching Clayton Kershaw pitch a 1-hitter. It is about who will be Baseball King of Los Angeles and enjoy the benefits of a huge cash flow cornucopia; aka the future re-negotiated TV rights to the Dodgers

Good luck Dodgers. You'll probably finish third or forth in the West again this season.

For now, Arte Moreno, owner of the LosAngeles-Anaheim-OrangeCounty-Angels-of-SealBeach, is King of baseball in the Southland.

As the song says: "Where have you gone Sandy Koufax?" or was that Joe DiMaggio??

Winning with Mark Cuban

Long-time readers of Think Billion$ will find it funny that we actually would like and would promote a book by Mark Cuban.

Even though we’ve been an occasional Cuban Critic over the years, we did find it in our hearts to congratulate the Dallas Mavericks on their NBA championship last year.

Mark Cuban has indeed done some crazy things over the years. However, he does provide us with some good business recommendations from time to time. And "How to Win" does provide us with solid suggestions and ideas. Plus, where can you find good quality business ideas and commentary these days for just $2.00+? Yes, two bucks! Amazing. Enjoy reading Mark Cuban.


How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It

Minority partners in the Mavericks basketball team sue Mark Cuban

Minority partners in the Dallas Mavericks basketball (Hillwood Investment Properties, Ross Perot Jr., etc) have sued majority owner Mark Cuban, alleging that he spent too much money on the team, among other items.

Cuban responded to this idiocy and lawsuit by using a photo of the team winning the 2011 NBA Championship (see above).

Congratulations Dallas Mavericks!

Congratulations Dallas Mavericks on winning the 2011 NBA World Championship!


As readers of the Think Billions blog know, we have been frequent critics over the years of Dallas owner Mark Cuban. But because we feel that he did a great job of keeping this team together and keeping them focused, we can easily say.......


Congratulations Dallas Mavericks!!!

Mark Cuban's Stupid College Football Playoff Idea

As you already know, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks (Mark Cuban), is always talking and thinking. Typically at the same time.

This week, our favorite sports owner told ESPNDallas.com that he was “actively interested but in the exploratory stage” of trying to bankroll a 12 or 16 team playoff to replace the controversial BCS (Bowl Championship Series).

What a humanitarian. Just when we need it the most.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock commented today, as expected:

“Given how much support our current system has among university presidents, athletics directors, coaches and athletes, I don’t think any amount of financial inducement will make people abandon” the BCS.

Mark Cuban to LeBron James: I told you, and you didn't listen

Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, regarding LeBron James:

“When he was making his decision, what I told him, and I told Maverick, was that no team had ever blown up a team of all their core, then added a couple of free agents and won,” Cuban said. “It’s always taken someone to come into a good team to make it better and put them over the top. That’s what I told him.”

Saturday Nov. 27, 2010:


Miami 95
Dallas 106

Mark Cuban shares his opinion about Lebron James

Current billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, shared his thoughts with the Dallas Morning News about future billionaire Lebron James.....

"LeBron has every right to go wherever and do whatever, whatever team he wants to," Cuban said. "Going to the Heat was his choice, those guys working together. I don't even have a problem with the three of them working together, as long as they follow all of the NBA rules, which I think they did.

Where I think LeBron made a mistake, was in how he did it. I don't even have a problem that he had the tv show. But it turned out to be the largest public humiliation in the history of sports. He humiliated the organization, he humiliated the state of Ohio , the city of Cleveland. All of a sudden he became a bad guy, he lost a billion dollars in brand equity, give or take a couple bucks here or there. ...

"I told his folks that I think he got bad advice. It's not about 'Can he move?' He can move, he can play for any team. I think he picked the wrong team (chuckles). There's a team in Dallas that could have used him and that would have been better served but it's his choice. But the way he did it I thought was just a huge mistake."

Mark Cuban: Anybody would be interested in Lebron James

NBA: FINE $100,000




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Of Texas billionaires, basketball and such

I've got the ball, says Mark Cuban

We don't write about Ross Perot, Jr. here too much. But as readers know, we do post often about that crazy-guy-owner of the one-and-out Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban.

Well know it seems as if Ross Perot's previous ownership of the Mavs (pre-Cuban) entitles him to throw spitballs at Mark Cuban. (Mr. Perot has retained a small minority ownership in the Dallas basketball team through his Hillwood Investment Properties III Ltd. company).

Ross is claiming the Dallas NBA team is close to financial insolvency. Cuban is quoted as saying the "Mavs are just fine."

We know the NBA has not been doing well financially as a league in recent years, however we doubt the Dallas Mavericks are on the brink of financial ruin.

We also doubt we will be following this Texas billionaire shoot-out in the near future. But, you can.

The Top 5 bad billionaires for the year 2009

Well, here we are at Think Billion$ at the end of 2009 and the end of the decade.

How do we close out the year with some sort of profound post? Well, once again we've been doing some thinking and serious research.

Last year The outcome of which is our First Annual "The Top 5 bad billionaires for the year 2008" list. How about that?

So here's the bad-boy list for this year, and let us know what you think:



Tiger Woods: while technically not a billionaire in net worth terms, everyone has been calling him that over the past couple of years because he has earned a billion from golf winnings and from personal endorsements. Why has Tiger been a bad billionaire for 2009? Come on, is this really a serious question???

Bernie Madoff: we found out about Bernie's badness in 2008, but was locked away in 2009.

Al Gore: we found out this year that Al is a "carbon Billionaire"

Allen Stanford: another convicted billionaire con.

Mark Cuban: for being Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban: I'm not so against steroids

Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban on the NBA's steroid policy:

"I'm not so against steroids," Cuban said, pausing to a roomful of laughter, "if it's administered under the proper supervision."


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Mark, Dinos and the Dallas Mavericks

Separated at birth? Mark Cuban and Dinos Trigonis

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