Tag Archives: Mark Cuban
Tribune Co. Sells Cubs And Wrigley Field To Ricketts Family
Tribune Company has been dealing with selling off their properties over the last couple of years. Now the deal is finally done and 95% of the Chicago Cubs along with Wrigley Field in Chicago will be sold to the Ricketts Family for $845 million. This deal is pending approval by the federal bankruptcy court and Major League Baseball.
The Tribune Company would have 5% remaining in the joint venture. This includes 25% share in Comcast SportsNet. The entity that owns the Cubs assets will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy so “that the franchise can emerge free and clear of Tribune Company’s financial obligations.”
Tribune bought Wrigley Field from the Wrigley family in 1981 for about $20 million. Tribune WGN radio and TV stations will keep the long-term rights as part of the deal.
At one point, Mark Cuban was involved in the bidding war. The Ricketts family won the bid. Joe Ricketts founded TD Ameritrade which is now being run by his son Tom. Tom is a huge Cubs fan and grew up watching games there. He once lived in an apartment above a bar across the street from Wrigley field. Tom met his wife at a Cubs game.
Insider-Trading Charges Against Mark Cuban Thrown Out
The insider-trading charges against Mark Cuban have been thrown out by a federal judge. Cuban maintained his innocence throughout the trial. It all started in 2004 when the CEO of Mamma.com told Mark that the company planned to raise money through a PIPE (private investment in public equity) deal. A PIPE deal involves selling public common stock to private investors.
At the time, Mark owned 6% (600,000 shares) of the company. He sold the shares right after finding out about the PIPE deal to avoid a loss of around $750,000. PIPE deals often strongly dilute existing shareholders’ equity in a company. Mark is a smart man and he knew exactly how such a deal would affect the value of his equity in the company.
The SEC alleged that Mark used this insider information to sell his shares before the PIPE deal took place. Mark denied the charges because he was not obligated to hold the shares after he learned about the PIPE deal. Judge Fitzwater, the judge that threw out his case, agreed with Mark.
The ruling will most definitely have implications for similar cases in the future. According to the ruling on this case, a person can only be charged if he or she receives sensitive insider information and agrees not to use it for personal gains.
Categories Mark Cuban
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Mark Cuban Disappointed With How Far Internet Video Has Come
Above is a video clip about what Mark Cuban thinks of how far Internet video has gotten so far. Walt Mossberg asked Mark Cuban why Internet video technology is growing at a pace that he believes is not fast enough. Cuban directly pinpointed the reason as being when Google bought YouTube.
He said that Google did not try right away to monetize YouTube and the message was ubiquity and volume. When the only focus is ubiquity and volume, then there isn’t time to further develop Internet video technology. Cuban then complimented Hulu for focusing on monetizing Internet video.
Cuban also pointed out how YouTube is subsidizing bandwidth for the world. I highly recommend watching the video to see Cuban’s perspective as it is an interesting discussion.
Categories AllThingsD, Mark Cuban
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Mark Cuban Apologizes For Calling Out Kenyon Martin
Dallas Mavericks owner and Chairman of HDNet Mark Cuban made the mistake of calling Kenyon Martin a thug and/or a punk. This incident occurred on Monday night’s Game 4 of the Dallas Mavericks vs. Denver Nuggets. Cuban and Kenyon’s mother confronted each other when the referee made a mistake causing Denver to beat Dallas 106-105. This gave Denver a 3-0 series lead.
Cuban was furious. He yelled at the people at the scorer’s table and then headed down the hall away from the court. The mother of Denver Nuggets player Kenyon Martin was near the base of that area. A fan started calling the Nuggets thugs while Cuban was walking out and then Cuban chimed in. He directly told Martin’s mother “that includes your son!” Martin’s agent believes that Cuban actually said “your son is a punk.”
Late last night, Mark Cuban issued an apology to Martin on his blog where he wrote:
“When the series comes back to Dallas, your family, and the family of other Nuggets players are welcome to stay in my suite, with my family. Its amazing how tempers mellow when real people talk to each other and realize that its still just a game. If that isn’t acceptable, I’m happy to provide a suite, free of charge to them as well and place whatever security is needed to make them feel comfortable.”
Recently Cuban was charged $25,000 for writing his opinion on Twitter about what he thinks of the referees..
Mark Cuban Fined & Courtney Love Sued For Using Twitter To Vent
On March 27, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $25,000 by the NBA for writing his opinion on Twitter. He sent out two messages on two messages in particular about the handling of a game by the referees. Cuban was upset that the referees did not call a technical foul on Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith for taunting Antoine Wright of the Dallas Mavericks.
The first message was: “how do they not call a tech on JR Smith for coming off the bench to taunt our player on the ground ?”
The second message was: “scary part of that play: Same crew chief from game in Denver where they missed call – last play of the game & 1st JRSmith/Wright issue.”
After finding out about the fine that did not stop Cuban from tweeting about the situation. He wrote:
“just found out got fined25k by nba. nice,” and then followed it up with a quip, “can’t say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does.”
Courtney Love is the lead singer of the alternative rock band Hole and was married to Kurt Cobain before he committed suicide. Love also has a Twitter account and she used it to complain about conflicts that she has with clothing designer Dawn Simorangkir. Simorangkir is suing Love for defamation.
[via LAT]