Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is selling $2 billion of stock in Las Vegas Sands so the family can acquire a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise from Mark Cuban.
Cuban, a 65-year-old tech billionaire, will keep a stake in the organization and continue to run the team, according to the Athletic, which placed the franchise’s total valuation at $3.5 billion. A deal is expected to be announced shortly, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.
The Adelson family has a binding purchase agreement for a team, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. They plan to use the proceeds from the stock sale as well as cash on hand to purchase the franchise, “subject to customary league approvals.”
Cuban, who is worth an estimated $6.4 billion, acquired the Mavericks from H. Ross Perot Jr. in 2000 for $285 million. Under his ownership, it has won three division titles, two conference championships and one NBA title, in 2011.
Cuban is perhaps best known for his 15 seasons on the ABC talent show Shark Tank. He plans to leave after the 16th season, according to a podcast interview.
A spokesperson for Sands and the Adelsons declined to comment, as did the NBA. Cuban and representatives for the Mavericks didn’t respond to requests for comment. The sale by Cuban was reported earlier Tuesday by basketball reporter Marc Stein on Substack.
Adelson, an Israeli-born physician, has led the family since her husband died in January 2021. Her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, is president of Sands, which owns casinos in Singapore and Macau.
Despite selling the flagship Venetian resort in Las Vegas to Apollo Global Management Inc. last year, the family retains close ties to America’s gambling capital. They own the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper and the company is still based there.
According to the latest proxy statement, Adelson controls about 433 million shares of Sands, or more than 56% of the total outstanding. The stock being sold represents about 11% of those holdings.
She is worth about $33 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Shares of Sands were down 3.2% to $46.15 in extended trading after initially falling further.
The shares are being marketed from $43 to $45.25 each, according to a term sheet seen by Bloomberg News. That range represents as much as a 10% discount to Las Vegas Sands’ share price of $47.66 at at Tuesday’s close, Bloomberg calculations show.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are bookrunners on the sale.
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