Mark Cuban is selling a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson, the wife of late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and her family at a valuation estimated to be around $3.5 billion, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. The casino tycoons revealed that they are funding this investment by trading $2 billion worth of stock in Las Vegas Sands Corp.
The Adelson family has a confirmed purchase agreement for the NBA franchise. They plan to use funds from the offering and existing cash reserves to finalize the acquisition. Cuban will retain only a minority stake in the team and also still preside over basketball operations, the report said.
Big Deal
In a unique arrangement in NBA history, Cuban, who also recently disclosed plans to depart from Shark Tank, retains shares in the Dallas Mavericks and maintains full control of basketball operations, as reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Cuban, who made a fortune by selling the website broadcast.com to Yahoo in the late 1990s, acquired the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million in 2000. the Dallas Mavericks clinched the NBA championship in 2011 and have consistently remained competitive under Cuban's ownership.
Throughout Cuban's tenure, the team made the playoffs in all but six of the seasons.
Earlier on Tuesday, Las Vegas Sands Corp. revealed that Miriam was selling $2 billion in shares of the company, representing approximately 10 percent of her family's stake. The stated purpose of this offering is to generate net proceeds for the acquisition of a majority interest in a professional sports franchise.
According to The Dallas Morning News, there are reported plans for a partnership between Mark Cuban and Las Vegas Sands in a venture involving a casino and arena in Dallas. However, this partnership is contingent on the legalization of gambling in Texas. Miriam Adelson, a physician and billionaire, held the 44th position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in 2021.
She was also named the fifth-richest woman and the wealthiest Israeli globally. Her estimated net worth was $29.6 billion. The majority of her wealth is attributed to her ownership stakes in Las Vegas Sands.
She obtained her American citizenship after marrying Sheldon in 1991 and has been the family's primary spokesperson since her late husband's death in 2021.
Fans Shocked
According to The Center for Responsive Politics, the Adelson couple had previously contributed over $281 million to Republican and conservative causes.
Their donations included support for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign, his inauguration, his defense fund against the Mueller investigation into Russian interference, and the 2020 campaign.
Miriam Adelson's son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, is the head of Las Vegas Sands.
The company holds various properties in Macao, such as the Sands, The Londoner, The Venetian, The Plaza, and The Parisian. As of 2020, Las Vegas Sands was the third-largest casino company globally in terms of revenue.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. made headlines last year for selling its flagship Venetian resort to Apollo Global Management.
Despite this sale, the company retains significant influence in Las Vegas, often considered the casino and gambling capital of the world.
According to Bloomberg, Miriam Adelson owns 433 million shares of Sands Corp., which constitutes over 56 percent of the total outstanding shares. The stock offering she made represents approximately 11 percent of her total holdings.
Following this news, on Tuesday, Sands' shares suffered a 4.34 percent decline to $45.59 in extended trading, having initially fallen by 1.85 percent to $47.66.
