Sports For two billion dollars
Former Nowitzki club Dallas Mavericks about to change ownership
As of: 05:39 a.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Dirk Nowitzki in the Dallas Mavericks jersey
Source: USA TODAY Sports/Kevin Jairaj
The Dallas Mavericks basketball franchise, which is also popular in Germany because of Dirk Nowitzki, is about to be taken over by a widow of a casino operator. The deal seems to be worth around two billion. The previous owner is doing a very good business.
The NBA club Dallas Mavericks is apparently facing a change of ownership. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to sell a large portion of his shares for $3.5 billion, the AP news agency reported on Tuesday (local time), citing a person familiar with the matter.
Miriam Adelson will be the new owner of the club. The widow of casino owner Sheldon Adelson is the majority shareholder of Las Vegas Sands Corp., a publicly traded Las Vegas company that built the Venetian and Palazzo resorts but now only operates casinos in Macau and Singapore. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, it is worth around $33 billion. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands, died in 2021 at the age of 87.
The company said Tuesday that it sold $2 billion in stock to buy an unspecified professional sports team. If the entire $2 billion goes into the purchase, Adelson would be able to take over at least 57 percent of the NBA team, based on a valuation of $3.5 billion.
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Cuban will retain administrative control of the basketball department. The vetting process for new owners in the NBA typically takes at least several weeks. Approval must then be granted by the league’s control council.
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The 65-year-old Cuban bought the Mavs in 2000. Dallas was one of the worst teams in professional sports in the 1990s, but developed into one of the best under Cuban. The Mavericks, who won their only championship in 2011 with Dirk Nowitzki at the helm, are worth $4.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
A spokesman for Sands and the Adelsons declined to comment, as did the NBA. Cuban and Mavericks representatives did not respond to inquiries from Bloomberg. The sale by Cuban was reported earlier Tuesday by a basketball reporter.
