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Mark Cuban · The David Rubenstein Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Some very special programming today featuring billionaire Mark Cuban on
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: how he made his money and then lost it and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: then made even more. You know, you know, Cuban made
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: some of his money betting against some of the companies
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: that he did business with. And of course we'll also
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  Speaker 1: hear from about owning a basketball team and how he
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: didn't care if he overpaid for it. And David Rubinstein,
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  Speaker 1: host of the David Rubinstein Show Peer to Peer Conversations,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: begins here by kind of going through all of Cubans successes.
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  Speaker 1: Let's listen in Mark, let me ask you this um
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  Speaker 1: you have at an early age made some money, and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: then you made an enormous amount of money when you
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: sold broadcast dot Com to Yahoo, made you know, over
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  Speaker 1: a billion dollars, and then you bought a basketball team.
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  Speaker 1: Then you have a Shark Tank series that's very successful,
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  Speaker 1: one Emmy award. You're well regarded by entrepreneurs all over
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the world. Presidents the United States call you for advice.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: What is wrong with this life? I mean, there's something
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  Speaker 1: about your life. It isn't perfect. I have kids. I
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: have a sixteen year old daughter and a fourteen year
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  Speaker 1: old daughter. That's all any parent needs to hear it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't matter what you have or what you don't have.
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  Speaker 1: The minute my oldest daughter turned fifteen, my wife and
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  Speaker 1: I got really stupid, lost half our brain capacity and
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  Speaker 1: are beholden to our kids for their with It's you know,
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  Speaker 1: being a parent is a challenge and um it's very
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  Speaker 1: humbling as ever as everybody knows. Well. I have three
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  Speaker 1: children as well, and I agree. So you grew up
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  Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh, but not from a wealthy and a wealthy family,
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  Speaker 1: is that right? No? My my dad did a poultry
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  Speaker 1: on cars, my mom did our jobs. He went to
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  Speaker 1: University of Pittsburgh. I was always into business, just how
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I've been since as long as I can remember. And
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: my high school wouldn't let me take business classes, and
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  Speaker 1: so as a as a junior, as a sophomore junior,
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  Speaker 1: there were only senior level economics classes, and so just
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  Speaker 1: despite them, I started taking classes at night and my
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  Speaker 1: junior year and then dropped out of high school for
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: my senior year, went to the University of Pittsburgh and
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  Speaker 1: took classes there. But then you went to Indiana University.
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  Speaker 1: Why didn't you go to Indiana Because pitt didn't have
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  Speaker 1: a full undergrad business program. And I saw a list
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  Speaker 1: of the top ten undergrad programs and picked out the
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  Speaker 1: cheapest one, and it was Indiana and I went there
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  Speaker 1: site unseen. Now. When you were there, you started a
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  Speaker 1: bar and it was a very successful bar, well kind
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: of successful. So my I always like my parents to
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: pay for my school. My dad sent me twenty bucks
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  Speaker 1: a month, and I had to figure out how to
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  Speaker 1: pay for things one way or the other. Um. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: I was able to get scholarships, other times, you know,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: just saving money from jobs I had. Other times it
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  Speaker 1: was a hustle. So when you graduated, you moved to Dallas.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Why did you move to Dallas. I had a bunch
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: of buddies down there that we're living that had gone
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to Indiana and moved to Dallas. And I was talking
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  Speaker 1: to one, my buddy, Greg Shipper, on the phone and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: he's like, Mark, the weather is great, the women are beautiful,
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  Speaker 1: the economy is good. And I'm like, wait, back up,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I'm coming. But you ultimately start today kind of technology
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  Speaker 1: consulting firm. Is that what it was? Well, what happened
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: was when I first got there and I was sleeping
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  Speaker 1: in the what we called at the hill hotel with
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  Speaker 1: my five roommates. Um, I got a job at night
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: working as a bartender slash far back, and then during
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  Speaker 1: the day I applied for jobs and finally got a
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  Speaker 1: job selling software at this company called Your Business Software,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: which I did for nine months until I got fired,
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  Speaker 1: and so I started my own company, micro Solutions, which
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  Speaker 1: at the time was when we started, was just a
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  Speaker 1: PC consulting company. And you ultimately sold that for a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: couple of million dollars or or so well. I sold
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  Speaker 1: it seven years later for six million dollars, of which
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  Speaker 1: a million went to all the employees, two million went
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  Speaker 1: to a partner that I brought in, and two million
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  Speaker 1: came to me and then some Texas. All right, so
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  Speaker 1: you've got two million dollars, which is a king's ransom
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  Speaker 1: in those days for somebody your age. Right, Yeah, I was,
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  Speaker 1: you know, twenty nine. Actually by the time I closed,
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  Speaker 1: I was thirty and so I just thought I was
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  Speaker 1: the luckiest guy and the richest guy in the world.
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  Speaker 1: This is ninety nine. In my mind, I was just
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  Speaker 1: gonna take time off my driving force was. I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to retire by the time I was thirty five, because
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: you know, one thing that my dad had always really
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  Speaker 1: you know, taught me and and really emphasized me is
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  Speaker 1: the one asset you can never own or get back
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  Speaker 1: his time, and so, you know, enjoy the time while
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: you're young, take advantage of it. You know, his job
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  Speaker 1: was backbreaking. He lost an eye in an accident at work.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he did upholstery, and a stable broke and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and and destroyed his his right eye, and and so,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and he would take me to work sometimes
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  Speaker 1: and make me sweep the floor because he wanted me
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  Speaker 1: to see the type of work he did not want
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  Speaker 1: me to do. And so when I you know, my
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  Speaker 1: goal was to retire so I can just enjoy my life.
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  Speaker 1: And so we sold microsolutions, and I literally retired by
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  Speaker 1: the lifetime pass and American Airlines just traveled the world
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  Speaker 1: and partied like a rock star, um, you know, for
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  Speaker 1: the next few years. So after you retired at the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: age of thirty or so, he ultimately came up with
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  Speaker 1: an idea which was to listen to Indiana University basketball
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: games on I guess a kind of streaming process is that.
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  Speaker 1: Right by the time I sold micro solutions, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I was really tech heavy. I mean, I we were
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  Speaker 1: one of the largest systems integrators. I taught myself the program.
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  Speaker 1: We did local and wide area network, so I got
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  Speaker 1: to understand networking and technology really well. I made a
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  Speaker 1: lot of money actually afterwards, just trading technology stocks because
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: back then it was so much easier, you know. I'd
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  Speaker 1: call up Rick Sherlan who had Goldman Sachs or you
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: know Lee Ainsley before he was even at Maverick Capital,
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  Speaker 1: and we would just swap ideas and I knew more
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  Speaker 1: about all the details of tech and what worked and
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  Speaker 1: what did work, and what companies were doing well, and
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  Speaker 1: ended up making tens of millions of dollars doing that.
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  Speaker 1: I then got together with my buddy Todd Wagner, who
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  Speaker 1: I knew from Indiana. He actually came to me with
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  Speaker 1: the idea. He was like, this new internet thing. You
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  Speaker 1: understand technology? Is there any way that we can listen
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  Speaker 1: to Indiana basketball um using the Internet? And I was like,
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  Speaker 1: that's a cool idea. And this was early, and I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: let's try to figure it out. And literally starting with
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  Speaker 1: a Packard Bell PC that I bought for like four grand,
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  Speaker 1: three or four grand at best Buy or something or
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  Speaker 1: comp Usa in the second bedroom in my house. I
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  Speaker 1: just sat there and tried to figure out how we
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  Speaker 1: would do this. And it went from you know, ten
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  Speaker 1: people the first week to a hundred to a thousand,
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  Speaker 1: to thousands, and we knew we had something within thirty days.
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  Speaker 1: But you took the company public, Is that right? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: July eighteenth and n and the stock zoomed. Uh. I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: hate to use the word zoom, but uh, it went
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  Speaker 1: up a lot. Yeah, the largest one day, largest first
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  Speaker 1: day I p O bump in the history of the
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  Speaker 1: stock market at the time. Right. So, did you say
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna build this company forever and just keep growing
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  Speaker 1: or does somebody come along and say I'll buy it
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  Speaker 1: from you? Well, the goal was to dominate because you know,
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  Speaker 1: we called it netcasting at the time, and this was
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  Speaker 1: pre YouTube, and literally we were the dominant force and streaming.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we had rights to all the major sports leagues.
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  Speaker 1: We had you know, hundreds of radio stations, um by
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  Speaker 1: We were doing video as well, and we bought ten
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  Speaker 1: percent of what turned out to be lions Gate Studios.
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  Speaker 1: We bought you know, video rights to all these libraries
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  Speaker 1: and so you know, we're making acquisitions. We really were
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  Speaker 1: on the path to dominate UM, and we had UM.
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  Speaker 1: Yahoo had invested in us the previous year and came
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  Speaker 1: to us and said, you know, we want to buy you.
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  Speaker 1: We need to get into multimedia, and you're the leader.
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  Speaker 1: Let's combined forces. And they made us an offer we
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  Speaker 1: couldn't refuse. They offered I think roughly fire or you
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  Speaker 1: ultimately the five point seven billion dollars in points. So
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  Speaker 1: you didn't own all five point seven billion yourself. I
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  Speaker 1: guess you had some outside investors and other people, but
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  Speaker 1: you have with about thirty of it. It was taxable
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  Speaker 1: the way it was structured ended up being taxable on
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  Speaker 1: the on the games. But um, yeah, it turned out
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  Speaker 1: to it turned out well. Yeah, here's the question I've
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  Speaker 1: always had, and uh, why is it that you had
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  Speaker 1: the foresight or how did you have the foresight to
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  Speaker 1: sell the Yahoo stock at a time when the markets
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  Speaker 1: were going up, people thought, yeah, who would be going
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  Speaker 1: up forever? You sold your Yahoo stock and cashed out
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  Speaker 1: before yeah who went down? By Well I actually hedged
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  Speaker 1: it right. So remember I mentioned that I had traded
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  Speaker 1: stocks between the time I saw my first company did really, really,
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  Speaker 1: really well, and I watched complete industries just skyrocket and
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  Speaker 1: then collapse. You know, there were there were companies when
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  Speaker 1: Dell Computer went public, there there were ten other PC
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  Speaker 1: companies that crashed and burn. I've seen it multiple times.
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  Speaker 1: And I made money going up, and I made money
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  Speaker 1: shorting them on the way down. And so I was
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  Speaker 1: very clear to Golden Sacks at the time that I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to to do a hedge. And so the first
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  Speaker 1: thing I did because I had a six month moratorium
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  Speaker 1: where I couldn't do anything, and so I took literally
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  Speaker 1: almost every penny. I had twenty some million dollars um
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and but um puts on an index and Internet index,
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  Speaker 1: and I lost all my money on that on that hedge,
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  Speaker 1: literally just all gone. Which was good because that got
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  Speaker 1: me to the point where Yahoo was still a high
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  Speaker 1: flyer and I sold covered calls and bought puts over
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the next three years, and that hedge saved me and
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  Speaker 1: actually made me money. But you you lost the first
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  Speaker 1: twenty million. Yep, what did your wife say? Oh No,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I wasn't married at the time, and it was it was,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you know, but the whole it was timed out right.
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  Speaker 1: So I got through the six months, even though I
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  Speaker 1: lost the money on that hedge. We already knew approximately,
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  Speaker 1: you know, based off of where the Yahoo stock was,
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  Speaker 1: how I'd be able to and what the volatility levels were,
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  Speaker 1: how I was gonna be able to sell calls on
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  Speaker 1: my Yahoo stock and use that money to buy UM
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: buy puts on UM the Yahoo stock, and when the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: stock apps, my poots were worth a fortune. You bought
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the Dallas basketball team, the Mavericks, for roughly two million dollars,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: which at the time was thought to be a lot
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: of money. Today it's a fraction of what it's worth.
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  Speaker 1: Why what propelled you to buy a basketball team? So
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  Speaker 1: I've always been a basketball junkie as long as I
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: can remember, And so I was the Dallas Mavericks season
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: ticket holder. And during that time that I owned season tickets,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: they were awful. I mean all of the nineties. They
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: were voted the worst professional sports franchise of the nineties.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll never forget. It was the thousand season open
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  Speaker 1: opener and we're undefeated, right, I mean, I'm a season
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  Speaker 1: ticket holder, I'm decided to go to the game. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't a sell out. There was no energy in the crowd.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, I just sold broadcast dot Com and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I thought I can do better than this, and then
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  Speaker 1: it donned to meet. Wait, I can put my money
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  Speaker 1: where my mouth is. Finally, and you know, not just
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: say it, but enquire about buying it. And from late
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: October when it first the concept first him up um,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: it took till January four to close the deal. And honestly,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't even care about price. They told me here's
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the price. I said yes because realized that I still
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: had my hedge on for Yahoo and I still benefited
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: when Yahoo stock went up. So there were days still
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: then when this is before the Internet bubble collapse. I
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: remember being on the team bus um in January talking
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to the coaches and I'm like, why did you spend
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: so much money? This is the worst franchise in all
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the NBA. The you know, the revenues are lower than
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: everybody else. I'm like, let me, you know, let me
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: just show you the price of y'allho It went up
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a hundred dollars or two hundred dollars today and that
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: paid for the whole team. So when you when you
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: buy a basketball team and get to play with the players,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: can you work out with them or they don't? Really
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: I like you to do that up until obviously the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: changes with this season. Before every home game, I would go,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I go on the court and get shots up. There's nothing,
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  Speaker 1: you know, crazier and to me as a basketball a junkie,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: exciting that to have, you know, an arena and you're
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: out there shooting, and you know, there were a lot
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  Speaker 1: of times over the years where I play one on
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: one with the players, or I shoot for money with
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the players and shoot threes, and they don't. They don't
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: ease up when you're when you're playing with them, they
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: don't ease up a little bit to let you win
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: because you're the owner. No, hell no, these are you know,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: because realize the other side of it. If I beat them,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: they'll never hear the end of it. And then you know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: there's just no way, no way. Now in your early
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the years as an owner, you're owning team now for
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: twenty years, and the early years of the owner and
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: maybe even recently, you've been um find a lot by
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the league, maybe more than any other owner for criticizing
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the referees, criticizing the league. Um, what was all that about?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Did you do that on purpose because you wanted attention
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: or did you just couldn't constrain yourself. No, it was
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: because I wanted to approve the league. I mean when
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I first got to the NBA, they didn't know what product,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: what their product was. They always thought that we sold basketball,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and I was very clear to them that we don't
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: sell basketball. We sell experiences. You know, if you think
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: about the sporting events that you've gone to, you know,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: you don't remember the score, the touchdowns, the dunks, the jumpers.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: You you remember who you were with, you know, the
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: first time a parent took you, the first time you
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: went with you know, your friends, or you know the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: time you know you had your your buddy's bachelor party
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: or the first date there. They didn't realize that's what
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: we sold. And so you know, it took a lot
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: of you know, aggression, I guess from both sides, you know,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of going back and forth
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: with then Commissioner David Stern, you know. But to his credit, um,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: while he had to find me, you know, privately, he
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: would agree with me on a lot of those things,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you know, And so to me, I was just being
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: a good partner, even though a lot of my partners
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: didn't really appreciate it. Well, in the early days, you
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: were a very young owner. Now you have an owner
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: for twenty years, you may be one of the more
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: experienced owners. Do you get people now listening to you
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: more than they did twenty years ago? Yeah, they're used
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: to me. Like you said, I'm one of the longer
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: term term owners, and so you know, I'll still raise
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: hell and and and speak up. But now they're kind
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: of used to me, and they've changed a lot. A
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: lot of things have changed, you know, whether how we
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: approach officiating, to how we market our games, to what
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: we do for broadcasts. Um, there's just so much that
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: has changed over the twenty years for the better. Now,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the NBA is playing in bubble in Orlando. How is
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: that working out? And are you, um surprised and it's
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: worked out reasonably well or you think it can be
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: done better or what what your view? I mean, it's
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: it's shocking how well it's gone. I mean, there's so
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: much risk, you know, just bringing such a large group
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of people, thousands of people together in one area, um,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and you know, and to have zero cases, that's stunning, stunning.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I mean literally were you know, we were concerned about
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: what might happen you know, because primarily you're talking about
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: population and the twenty somethings, and as you can see
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: outside the bubble, just you know, people twenty somethings in
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: any city, they're not the most conscientious when it comes
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: to wearing masks and so following social distancing and other protocols.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: And so you know, to to our players and staff
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and Disney and the n b A, to their credit,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: everybody has been really, really careful and it's paid off.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Dirk Nawinski was one of your star players for want
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a long time of European. You have a couple of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: other Europeans now who are stars as well. Um, one
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: of them, like you traded you got from the New
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: York Uh next I think uh in a trade that
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: President Trump UH commended you on that I recall. So, um,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: let me ask you this, So, when are you going
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: to recruit more Jewish basketball players in the NBA. Yeah,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I don't care if they're from Mars, right, you know,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: if they wear a kimba during the game, I'm fine
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: with that too. I don't care. You know, just what
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: ever ever ever works, I just want to win. You know,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: you have a very much of an every man image
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: where you're like an average Joe. You're a basketball fan,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: so worth. But the truth is you have a lot
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: of technology background a lot of uh sophisticated financial backgrounds.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: So you haven't kind of portrayed that the way. You know,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Bill Gates as seen as a technology guy, and maybe
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Jeff Bezos is. But you have a lot of technology
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: knowledge which you don't kind of advertise as much, but
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: clearly you you know the technology work at the time.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Right when I worked at your business software before I
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: got fired, it became very clear to me that when
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: it came to technology, there were two people, two types
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of people. There are the people who created the technology,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: and then there was everybody else. And I was tied
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: for with everybody else in terms of knowledge of any
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: new technology that came out. And if I put in
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the time and you know, put in the effort to
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: learn about that technology, no matter what it was, I
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was going to move ahead of the maybe never catch
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: the person or the people who created the tech, but
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I'd be ahead of everybody else. And that's always been
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: my mantra and I tried to stick to that today
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: as you are talking to us today, you you have
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: many different businesses. But you have a big investment business,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and you've said publicly that you're a gigantic investor in
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Amazon and Netflix and other companies. And do you just
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: have advisors that help advise you on these or you
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: just make your own decisions? Pretty much make my own decisions. Yeah,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: I mean I used to trade, as mentioned, Um, I
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: used to trade a lot. I used to be very
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: very active as a trader. And you know back you know,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: back in the nineties and early two thousands, there was
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a lot less money chasing more stocks, and now there's
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: a lot more money chasing fewer stocks. So, um, it's
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: harder to trade and be successful. So I just stick
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: to the companies I believe in. You know, I've owned
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Netflix since it was fifty and and Amazon I was
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: mine between five hundred and seven hundred and actually bought
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: some more in the high thousands, just under two thousand. UM.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: But I've got some scattered things, you know, beyond that
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: that I've owned over the years that I've held on too.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: But I don't. I no longer trade. You know that
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: fed put is strong that that you know that fed
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: um inflation of financial assets kind of gives us a
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: tail wind now COVID you have said has changed the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: world in terms of opportunities. Uh, it's obviously hurt people,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: but it's obviously helped people who are entrepreneurial. So you've said,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: this is a good time to actually figure out new businesses,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: new areas of business. Is that fair statement? Yeah, you know,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it's so unfortunate, but it's true. I mean, you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: we've heard Warren Buffett say, you know, by when there's
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: blood in the streets, and it's almost analogous here. So
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: many small businesses are closing, so many you know, retail
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: stores are closing malls or are you know, going bankrupt um.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Companies that are unable to transition to to selling digitally
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: or or really taking a full advantage of e commerce
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: are struggling. Big companies don't understand, don't really aren't sure
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: about how to protect our legacy businesses. That type of
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: uncertainty creates a lot of opportunity, and combine that with
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: people becoming far more comfortable with purchasing online and living
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: a digital lifestyle. I think there's a lot of unique
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: opportunities that are available to people who who who are creative,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: who have a vision for the future, I think, you know,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: ten years, we'll look back and they'll be ten thirty
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: world class companies that were created by people who we
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: probably think are thinking are crazy right about now. So
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: you had a relationship with President Trump at one point,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: I think when he was first thinking and running. This
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: was after he announced and thinking he had no chance
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to win whatsoever. Um, I'm made a public statement saying
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I think Donald Trump is the best thing to ever
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: happen to politics. He's not a traditional politician, and he
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: says what's on his mind, and that got picked up everywhere,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and I became his new best friend, and so he
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: would call me all the time, all the time, um,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: and just you know, that's who he is until I
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: said one day that I didn't think he was qualified,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: and then it was all downhill from the So he
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: never invited you to the White House. No, actually he
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: did recently, but you know, everything Donald Trump touches, you know,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: turns into a mess. So I didn't accept the offer.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Now you've said you might consider running for president. In fact,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you had a poster, look at it. Why did you
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: decide not to run for president this time? Primarily because
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: my family said no, I mean, you can't you know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: given the nastiness of politics um right now and just
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the hate and the social media destructiveness, you know, your
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: family has got to really be up for it. Um.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: And so that was the primary reason. And the secondary
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: reason was in in the polling that I did do,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get more than of the boats. I could
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: dominate with independence, but I couldn't, you know, pull enough
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Republicans or Democrats from Biden or Trump. Would you consider
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: running in the future for president? I hope not. You know.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: The only reason I considered it now is just because
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: things are so partisan and people are putting party over country.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: And I thought, as an independent and somebody who you know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: was not dogmatic about anything for that matter, except trying
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: to serve the American people, that the timing might have
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: been good, um, but it's not my ultimate dream job.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: So if somebody's watching this and says, all right, I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: want to be like Mark Cuban, I want to be
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a leader in many different areas, be successful. What would
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: you say are that one or two or three traits
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that are necessary to be a successful leader. Find something
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: that you love to do and be great at it.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: You know, most people the one thing in life, you
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: can control was your effort. And most people don't put
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in the effort. They think it comes to them and
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: it doesn't. As you know, you know, there there's lots
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: of competition on no matter what you choose, and you
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: have just got to put in the effort behind you.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: It looks like it's one of a replica of a
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: basketball championship trophy, not a replica. That's that's the real deal.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: That's the that's the real deal, all right. So you
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: look like you need another one to match it up? Here?
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Are you hopeful and of getting another one someday? Oh? Absolutely,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully this year. Um, but yeah, that's the goal.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: With the MAVs. You knows, there's one winner and twenty
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: nine people tied for last place in the NBA and
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: this one is almost ten years old. So Larry O'Brien
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: back there, needs some needs some friends. And that was
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: billionaire Mark Cuban with David Rubinstein, host of The David
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Rubinstein Show, Peer to Peer Conversations. And that's it for
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Best. I'm at Baxter and Dime, Denise Spelly Green
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and this is Bloomberg