Here are seven things to know about Mark Cuban, longtime Dallas Mavericks owner, who is selling his majority stake in the team.
Mark Cuban says he would buy Fox News and X, but can’t
The eye-catching quotes came in a wide-ranging conversation with Wired.
Few billionaires are closer to the spotlight than Dallas’ own Mark Cuban.
His latest appearance in the news?
A wide-ranging conversation with Wired where he talked about everything from his Cost Plus Drugs company and artificial intelligence to politics and his taxes.
Since selling his controlling stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA team in December and with his Shark Tank television tenure closing, Cuban has delved deeper into politics and social media, sounding off on the 2024 presidential election, the health care industry and trade policies.
Cuban’s most eye-catching comments in the Wired interview were about cable news channel Fox News and social media platform X, formerly Twitter. When asked if he’d want to buy the news network, the billionaire — who has been outspoken in favor of Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential election — said he would because he wants to fix it.
“If I had enough money to do it, which I don’t, I’d buy it in a heartbeat,” Cuban said.
Cuban explained that an acquisition would be in the region of $20 billion, concluding, “I don’t have $15 [billion] or $20 billion in cash sitting around.”
The conversation pivoted to X. His initial reaction was to say the platform’s owner, fellow billionaire Elon Musk, wouldn’t sell it to him. He stuck to his answer when he was pushed on it.
“I wish I could. There’s no reason for him to sell it,” Cuban said, referring to Musk.
Cuban is an active user on the social media platform, often sparring with Musk. Cuban has criticized Musk’s leadership at the social media platform and the pair have argued about politics, clashing over the presidential election, diversity, equity and inclusion policies, freedom of speech and other issues.
Hey @elonmusk ! 1st. Congrats on Polaris. Truly an amazing accomplishment
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) September 15, 2024
2nd. If you want to directly ask me questions about any of @KamalaHarris policies and approach, I'm happy to tell you what I know
In exchange I'm hoping you will do the same about the Republican… https://t.co/Jdqx9UAmER
The latest jab came early Wednesday when Cuban posted “lol” in reply to a post where Musk wrote: “Unless Trump is elected, America will fall to tyranny. Trump must win.”
