Biting the hand that feeds you: Cuban vs. Yahoo

Had it not been for Jerry Yang and Tim Koogle, Mark Cuban would be just another middle-aged rich guy. Not George Soros-rich, but with enough shekels in the bank to spend a life of leisure.

Hey guys, I'm baaaack

In 1999, he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for the princely sum of $5.04 billion in stock (and then was smarter than the average bear by cashing out before the bubble burst). Up until then, Cuban was working with the proceeds from his 1990 sale of MicroSolutions, a computer reseller, for $6 million. Not bad, but not enough to buy a professional basketball team.

Now Cuban is part of the 10-person slate that Carl Icahn is proposing to take over Yahoo's board. Talk about a smack in the head! Of course, Cuban's a sharp tack and knows the ins and outs of the Internet business better than most. Still, maybe it's just me, but talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Yeah, I know, it's business, not personal.

[AppleSuxLeo]

He`s not Cuban folks...He`s Jewish !

[bobr]

FYI, For many years Jews were not allowed by the antisemitic governments of the world. When they came to the US they were often given last names that were taken from their places of origin.

[streamOG]

Mark sold Yahoo a dying business that they lost $100M on and later shut down. Total loss.

Hard to believe they would reward him for this but then again he's worth a lot more money now than he was worth even then.

And now that Yahoo sealed their fate by bailing on Microsoft, I would imagine he's brash enough to get them some press...enough to maybe sell for $20 a share.

C. Levy
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[JCPayne]

Yahoo had to sell Broadcast.com to Real Player... Why would you want this guy back???? What good judgement will he bring to Yahoo (this time) ???

[benjwah]

He sold them a 5 billion dollar waste of money, so he's already proven himself the smarter one. No one knows Yahoo's mismanagement better than Mark Cuban, for all I know he named his biggest yacht "Jerry Yang is a *******".

[bobr]

I pleases me to see Tim Koogle Get some of the credit he deserves. I had the pleasure of working closely with Tim about 18 years ago at Motorola and he possesses one of the very finest visionary minds that I have encountered in my 45 year career. Should add that during his tenure at Yahoo it became the nexus of the Internet for me and most of the people I know. Since he left it has become just another portal.