Mark Cuban Net Worth: Biggest Shark in the Tank

The Mark Cuban net worth total of $3.3 billion comes almost entirely from the business genius’ brilliant investment acumen, with very little from TV. Cuban has made $3.29 billion from investments, with more than half of that coming from the sale of his company Broadcast.com to Yahoo! in 1999. Over $1.1 billion of his investment earnings comes from Cuban’s ownership of the Dallas Mavericks, with smaller portions owing to several other investments, including his first business MicroSolutions, which he built in the 80’s and sold for a profit of $2 million to CompuServe in 1990. Cuban’s net worth from TV acting and producing comes to only $0.01 billion. We say “only” but in truth that’s still $10 million. That wouldn’t be a bad fortune at all for the vast majority of Americans.

Mark Cuban Net Worth Facts

Mark Cuban Net Worth Facts
Mark Cuban net worth$3,300,478,815
Mark Cuban net worth vs Mark Zuckerberg net worthHalf as big
Mark Cuban net worth vs Bill Gates net worth25 times smaller
Mark Cuban net worth vs Donald Trump net worthHalf as big
Mark Cuban net worth vs YouTube worth27 times smaller
Mark Cuban net worth vs Beyonce net worth10 times bigger
Mark Cuban net worth vs Jay Z net worth6 times bigger
Mark Cuban net worth vs Justin Bieber net worth15 times bigger
Mark Cuban net worth vs Hillary Clinton net worth104 times bigger
Mark Cuban net worth vs typical American family net worth48537 times smaller

Mark Cuban Net WorthThe Mark Cuban net worth sum of $3.3 billion stacks up pretty well against the rest of the world. Looking at some of the world’s richest celebrities, Cuban has about half as much money as Mark Zuckerberg’s $5.1 billion and 1/25th the wealth of world’s richest person Bill Gates. Cuban’s net worth is also about half as much as presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s at $5.18 billion and 1/27th as big as the worth of all of YouTube at $86.2 billion. Compared to “regular celebs, Cuban does a lot better. He has ten times more net worth than Beyonce at $336 million, six times more than Jay Z at $554 million and 15 times more than Justin Bieber at $232 million. Finally, Cuban has 104 times more money than candidate Hillary Clinton with $32 million. The interesting thing about Cuban’s wealth versus that of other celebrities is that most famous people make their money based on fame. That is, they become famous because they can run fast, swim fast, make excellent music, act very well in hit movies or just get a sex tape leaked. After that it’s all about the endorsement deals. Cuban’s income comes down a slightly different pipe, with the bulk of it springing from shrewd business investments and his TV fame as sort of a side hobby.

Mark Cuban Net Worth Timeline

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Mark Cuban Net Worth Timeline

Mark Cuban Net Worth by Year
Mark Cuban net worth 1990$2,000,000
Mark Cuban net worth 1998$2,276,749
Mark Cuban net worth 1999$1,702,313,801
Mark Cuban net worth 2005$2,031,671,794
Mark Cuban net worth 2006$2,109,110,938
Mark Cuban net worth 2007$2,191,695,199
Mark Cuban net worth 2008$2,280,715,011
Mark Cuban net worth 2009$2,375,910,768
Mark Cuban net worth 2015$3,133,664,892
Mark Cuban net worth 2016$3,300,478,815

The chart above shows how the Mark Cuban net worth story grew over time. The timeline carves a different sort of graph, showing the wealth boost Cuban enjoyed from a few key investments. The first was Cuban’s first business, MicroSolutions, which he started in the 1980’s and sold in 1990 for a $2 million profit. That profit hardly moves the needle in our chart, but it made Cuban a millionaire and gave him the ability to make a bigger investment some years later. Cuban started a company called Audionet in 1995, which became Broadcast.com in 1998. Yahoo bought the company in ’99 for $5.7 billion. Cuban scored an estimated $1.7 billion from that deal, signified by the mammoth jump in the graph above. Soon after, the investor wisely sold out a large portion of his Yahoo sales, diversifying his portfolio and avoiding calamity in the 2008-09 stock market crash. He invested in several other companies (details below) and a football team, which have ensured a steady growth of his already impressive wealth.

Mark Cuban net worth breakdown

Mark Cuban Net Worth Sources: Business Investments

The chart above shows graphically how the Mark Cuban net worth story shakes out. Cuban has made $3.29 billion from investments or 99.7% of his money. A tiny 0.03% comes from acting in and producing TV shows and movies. In fact, Cuban’s TV success seems almost more like a labor of love than anything else, except that it’s also a great way for him to find promising investments. Cuban’s Shark Tank show gives him unparalleled opportunities to draw in and filter the best new investment ideas in the country, placing bets on those investments before anyone else can. As far as Cuban’s income is concerned, he most likely makes a lot more from TV as a kind of advertising platform for his investment company than as an actor or producer. Looking strictly at Cuban’s TV earnings in the table below shows a total career income of just over $19 million and a salary of about $850,000. After taxes, Cuban has kept only about $10 million of that money, whereas his investments have brought him to the $3.3 billion mark.

Mark Cuban Net Worth Sources
Acting and Appearances$2,215,938
Producing$16,800,000
Total Mark Cuban Earnings$19,015,938
Mark Cuban Salary (average)$826,780
Mark Cuban Salary 2016$854,271
Taxes$7,530,311
Expenses$2,852,391
Regular Investments$2,888,188
Business Investments (after tax)$3,288,957,392
Mark Cuban Net Worth$3,300,478,815
Net Worth from TV
Net Worth from Business Investments

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Mark Cuban Net Worth from Business Investments: $3.29 Billion

How did business investments kick in $3.29 billion to the Mark Cuban net worth figures? Cuban was born in 1958, the son of a car upholsterer. At 24 he took a job as a bartender, then a salesperson at a PC software retailer in Texas. He was fired from that job but took some of his clients with him, starting his own business, MicroSolutions, which he sold to CompuServe in 1990 for $6 million. He kept an estimated $2 million of that money after taxes and used it to start his next company in ’95. That company was called Audionet and it served as a webcast platform for local sports, growing into Broadcast.com by 1999, with over 300 employees and nearly $14 million in annual revenue. The company sold to Yahoo! in that year for $5.7 billion in stock. After that time, Cuban took his after tax money from the deal, then estimated at $1.7 billion, and put it into a series of smart investments in the companies listed below:

  • The Dallas Mavericks (majority owner)
  • 2929 Entertainment (co-founder)
  • Brondell Inc. (investor)
  • Goowey Media Inc. (investor)
  • Sharesleuth.com (investor)
  • Bailoutsleuth.com (founder)
  • Motionloft (investor)
  • United Football League (loaned money to)
  • Professional Futsal League (owner)
  • Shark Tank (investor)

Those investments protected Cuban from losing nearly half his wealth in the stock market crash of 2008-09. They have also grown Cuban’s net worth by an estimated 10.6% per year. That’s a lot higher average rate than the DJIA or the NASDAQ. Cuban also invested in and founded or co-founded several other companies, including Magnolia Pictures, AXS TV, IceRocket, Weblogs, Inc., RedSwoosh and Synergy Sports Technology. All together, investments in all those companies create the $3.29 billion Mark Cuban net worth portion from investments shown in the table below.

BusinessRoleProfit
MicroSolutions, 1990founder$2,000,000
Broadcast.com, 1999co-founder$1,700,000,000
Dallas Mavericks, 2016majority owner$1,120,000,000
Other Investments$466,957,392
Total Profit from Business So Far$3,288,957,392

Mark Cuban Net Worth from TV and Movies: $0.01 Billion

TV and movies inject “only” $0.01 billion into the Mark Cuban net worth numbers. That’s $10 million, and we should all be so lucky as to save only that amount. Cuban has actually earned nearly $20 million from acting and producing in dozens of TV shows and movies. The short list of his acting roles includes Lost at Sea, Walker, Texas Ranger, The Neighbors, Bad Teacher, The League, Entourage, Sharknado 3 and Dancing with the Stars. It’s hard to conclude that Cuban’s acting work is anything other than a labor of love, since he certainly didn’t need the money any time after 1999. Yet only two of his 20 roles happened before his billionaire year. When he appeared in an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger in 2000 alongside Chuck Norris, he was already richer than all but about 300 people in the world. All in all, Cuban has earned an estimated $2.19 million from acting and $16.8 million from producing. His producing credits include Star Search, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Good Night and Good Luck, Akeelah and the Bee, Diggers, Redacted and dozens more. Cuban has produced or executive produced over 50 shows and movies, all of them well after he hit billionaire status.

Mark Cuban Net Worth from Acting, Producing
Acting Income$2,190,000
Producing Income$16,800,000
Total$18,990,000

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Mark Cuban Net Worth Calculations

To arrive at the final Mark Cuban net worth number of $3.3 billion, we figured Cuban’s acting and producing income based on a close analysis of all roles and credits and their probable payouts. Then we researched Cuban’s reported business deals and online estimates for each deal. The two biggest deals gave us our basis: $1.7 billion in profit from the sale of Broadcast Solutions in 1999 and an estimated $1.12 billion from Cuban’s majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. Cuban purchased that stake for $280 million in 2000. To the base amounts we added a relatively high 10.6% investment rate of return, based on Cuban’s shrewd business acumen and his 15 other businesses. Figuring that per year with applied capital gains tax rates of 28% before 1998 shrinking to 15% by 2004 gives us our final Mark Cuban net worth level of $3.2889 billion from investments and another $10 million from TV and movies.

If you liked reading about Mark Cuban’ net worth, try this post about Taylor Swift’s net worth or this one about how much money Pokemon GO makes. All Mark Cuban net worth data in this article are based on our analysis of income streams, tax, expense and investment calculations, estimates and media reports and are provided here for entertainment purposes only.

Sources:

Reuters: Mark Cuban net worth from SEC Filings