Mark Cuban has revealed he made nearly 100 percent of his employees millionaires after selling one of his companies.
The American businessman and investor has created, owned and also sold a plethora of companies.
But when he’s sold his companies for millions – or even billions – where has this left employees?
A Twitter user took to the platform on June 5 to ask for advice when it comes to ‘selling underperforming businesses for $$$$‘.
They said: “Serious question: What do you do with the employees? Do you place the employees in jobs at other businesses you own, do they go with the sold business? Will that business pay a ‘living wage’?”
And Cuban responded: “In every business I’ve sold I’ve paid out bonuses to every employee that was there more than a year. http://Broadcast.com, 300 out of 330 employees became millionaires.”
Mark Cuban may’ve sold multiple companies but he didn’t forget about the employees in the deals (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Indeed, in 1999 Cuban sold Broadcast four years after creating it alongside friend Todd Wagner.
The internet audio company where users could listen to sports games online was sold to Yahoo for a whopping $5.7 billion in stock.
And Broadcast wasn’t the only example of Cuban considering his employees before selling the business.
He added: “Microsolutions, I paid out 20 pct to our 80 employees.”
Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe in 1990 for $6 million, meaning if he paid out 20 percent of $6 million, he set aside $1.2 million of the total sale price to share out among employees.
Cuban considered his employees in multiple sales (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
CNBC Make It reports that MicroSolutions had 80 employees, which would mean each member of staff received an impressive $15,000.
Cuban noted HDNet ‘wasn’t as big’ but he still ‘paid out about 20pct of what [he] got’ for the company to its employees, the businessman selling his majority shares in HDNet in 2019 to Leonard Asper’s Anthem Sports & Entertainment.
Last year, Cuban also sold his majority stake in NBA club the Dallas Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and her family for $3.5 billion.
“Mavs wasn’t a total exit but we paid out more than 35m dollars to employees,” Cuban added. “And only HDNet had any layoffs right after the sale.”
And it’s not taken long for people to weigh in.
In selling Broadcast, Cuban made a majority of the company’s employees millionaires (X/ @mcuban)
One Twitter user said: “That’s admirable Mark. Nice to know there are some who appreciate the work employees do for them.”
“That’s a good record!” another added.
A third commented: “Agree or disagree with @mcuban but he at least understands it is the whole team and not just him that makes it all work.”
And a fourth resolved: “Damn. You got a job opening at any of your companies you’re looking to sell in the next few years?”