Mark Cuban’s time in the Shark Tank is coming to an end.
During an appearance on the Showtime podcast All The Smoke, the Dallas Mavericks governor told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that season 16 of the ABC series would be his final one. The show is currently in its 15th season, so he’s still got one more ahead of him.
In his run on the show, Cuban has invested over $29 million in 85 companies whose founders appeared looking for investments from the “sharks.”
“I love it because it sends the message the American dream is alive and well,” Cuban said. “I feel like in doing Shark Tank all these years, we’ve trained multiple generations of entrepreneurs that if somebody can come from Iowa or Sacramento or wherever, and show up on the carpet of Shark Tank and show their business and get a deal, it’s going to inspire generations of kids. That’s what happens, right? Now we’ve got people coming on saying I watched you when I was 10 years old. I’m like, ****. But we’re helping them, right? I’ve invested in, I don’t know how many hundreds of companies. On a cash basis, I’m down a little bit, but on mark-to-market meeting, the companies are still in operation. I’m way up.”‘
Cuban initially appeared as a guest star in season 2 of the show before becoming one of the “sharks” the next season. He has been with the show since.
Per Deadline, ABC hasn’t commented on Cuban’s announcement but an insider told them that he has discussed leaving the show prior to this.
According to Forbes, Cuban’s net worth at $6.2 billion, so he’s doing fine.
[Deadline]