Cuban is on the cover of this month's Forbes 400 Richest People in America issue with a feature that leads with the headline, "Mark Cuban Considering Leaving Shark Tank As He Bets His Legacy on Low-Cost Drugs."
The article is mostly about his latest venture, Cost Plus Drugs, a discount online pharmacy that aims to do what the Food and Drug Administration has never done: negotiate prices directly with manufacturers with a 15 percent markup. Cuban has a lot riding on this venture, and it's not just because people are paying an average price for prescription drugs that's more than 2.5 times higher than prices in 32 other nations, according to a report filed by the RAND Corporation.
Potato Parcel founder Alex Craig makes his pitch on the ABC reality series Shark Tank.
Courtesy of ABC
Forbes writes, "[Cuban] insists he will pull back from other projects to focus on Cost Plus Drugs. He is even considering stepping away from Shark Tank."
"Part of me wants to quit," Cuban said to Forbes. "They'll survive fine without me."
We immediately sent an email to Cuban and, fortunately, he always responds in record time.
"I told them I'm coming back at least for next year," Cuban told the Dallas Observer on Friday.
Cuban says he considered stepping off the show because of reasons other than his business ventures.
"It was more about scheduling than anything," Cuban says. "With a daughter in college, it's harder to make up a time with her, but they moved shooting from July to June (not for me). So it turned out just fine."
Cuban has been on ABC's Shark Tank for more than half of the show's history, and it's grown into an international brand. The show is based on the original Japanese version called Tigers of Money, which first aired in 2004 and presented a group of wealthy investors listening to pitches for unique products and services from inventors and product creators. If the investors like what they see, they can offer to fund its expansion through percentage deals or even straight buyouts.
The following year, Sony Pictures Television wanted to expand the show's brand, so it developed Dragon's Den for the BBC in England, according to a feature on the show's history in Entrepreneur.
Four years later, ABC premiered the American version, Shark Tank, starring business creators and venture capitalists such as infomercial king Kevin Harrington, Kevin "Mr. Wonderful" O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran and Robert Herjavec. Cuban joined the series in 2011 when Harrington left the show.
The Mavericks owner has invested a serious amount of cash during his 11 years on the show. According to the fan website Sharkalytics, which tracks the show's investments and product developments, Cuban has invested an average of $233,529 into various product and business deals for a grand total of around $20 million. He also set the record for the show's largest offer, with a $30 million promise to buy the popular dating app Coffee Meets Bagel founded by sisters Arum, Dawoon and Soo Kang. The sisters turned down Cuban's offer to sell the company.
He's invested $2 million for a 20 percent stake in Los Angeles-based horror entertainment production company Ten Thirty One Productions, since reorganized as Thirteenth Floor Productions.Other investments include $1.75 million for a 25 percent stake in the outdoor experience Rugged Maniac Obstacle Course and a 100 percent partnership in Hy-Conn, maker of a fire hydrant hose connector. In that deal, he triumphed after a heated negotiation with O'Leary, who called Cuban's buyout a "tyranny."
