Mark Cuban, who gained billions by selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo!
I recently interviewed him on The Motley Fool Radio Show. The following are highlights from our conversation:
David Gardner: I know you have expressed public skepticism in the past about the stock market. . I won't say you have ever called it a Ponzi scheme exactly.
Mark Cuban
: Oh, I called it a Ponzi scheme, there is no question about it. It is, and that is just the way it is. . I will say it today, I will say it forever, that owning a company like Cisco
With a private company, you generate cash, and you put that money in the bank. When people come to me to invest in companies, I don't want to hear about exit strategies, I want to hear about how much cash are you paying me when we start generating profits. . Anybody who comes to me and says our exit strategy is to go public, I just turn them away. I don't even talk to them.
David Gardner: What are your thoughts right now about Google
Mark Cuban : Well, I think the company is a good company as everything is positioned today. Internet advertising, pay-per-clicks, branded advertising, (and) website advertising is huge right now. Money is being drawn from other mediums and that is not going to stop. Google and Yahoo! are going to be recipients of that. .
You are not going to see an ever-increasing market share for online advertising. It is going to level out at some point. Google hasn't shown -- nor (have) any of the online sites really shown -- anything that says, "We know how to compete in a mature industry." That is not to say that they can't. That is not to say that they won't. It is just not there yet. So, do I think there is risk associated with it? Yes. But they are smart guys, and hopefully they will come up with something.
David Gardner: What is your take on what Apple
Mark Cuban: Well, Apple has done a phenomenal job. It is just a great company, and they amaze me at how they are able to regenerate themselves. But now they are a consumer electronics company. They have to come up with hit after hit after hit because we know what happens in the consumer electronics industry. You get knocked off, you get copied, and then price becomes a competitive issue. .
The only company that has really been able to excel in technology on an ongoing basis has been Dell
David Gardner: What does the Mark Cuban investment portfolio look like these days?
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David Gardner doesn't have a financial interest in any of the companies mentioned. View his profile here. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.