Mark Cuban is selling a majority ownership stake in the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and the Adelson family in a deal that values the team at roughly $3.5 billion, according to reports.
The deal is unorthodox in that Cuban will retain shares of the team and keep full control of basketball operations despite no longer being the majority owner. Cuban has a reputation for being involved in day-to-day operations with the Mavs, and this deal preserves that.
Cuban bought the Mavericks in 2000 for $285 million, and the franchise became one of the NBA’s most successful teams under his watch, including winning a championship in 2011.
Miriam Adelson is the owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino, where her late husband Shelden Adelson served as CEO. It was reported Tuesday that she sold $2 billion worth of Las Vegas Sands stock in order to fund the purchase of a professional sports team.
The Adelson family’s prominence in Las Vegas is an interesting wrinkle. The city that brought the NFL’s Oakland Raiders to town and added the Golden Knights NHL expansion team in recent years has long been the subject of NBA expansion rumors as well.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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