Dallas-based Belo Corp., publisher of the Dallas
Morning News, sued Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban yesterday,
alleging that he had "reneged on a deal to buy" the
company's 12.38% minority stake in the team, according to
Richard Alm of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Belo purchased its
stake in July '99 for $24M, and in January, Cuban bought his
majority stake from then-Owner Ross Perot Jr. for about
$280M, increasing the value of Belo's share to $34.7M. The
lawsuit alleges that as part of the transaction, Belo had a
right to sell its stake to Cuban on the "same terms" as
Perot. Court documents indicate that Belo negotiated a deal
with Cuban "to maintain the option to sell until July." In
June, Belo said it would sell its holding in the team along
with other assets, and claims that Cuban's attorney "sent
drafts of closing documents in July." But Belo states that
Cuban shortly hired new counsel, "who asked for price
concessions" of $1.5M (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/21).
EDITORIAL COVERAGE A CONCERN: In response to Belo's
suit, Cuban said yesterday that there was "no signed
contract because the two sides were unable to reach an
agreement." Cuban: "I had made it clear to Belo management
that I was only going to sign the agreement once Belo
demonstrated to me that they were able to consistently keep
up their end of the deal, which was ongoing editorial
coverage of the Dallas Mavericks in the Dallas Morning
News." Cuban said that the "final straw for him was the
lack of any News stories on the Mavericks on the day of an
exhibition game" with the Heat in October, when Cuban "ended
negotiations with Belo over the sale" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS,
11/21). Belo spokesperson Michael McCarthy: "We are
reluctant plaintiffs in this dispute and are disappointed
that we might have to resort to litigation to enforce Belo's
contractual rights" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 11/21).
Meanwhile, a news report stated that Cuban "blasted" the
Morning News on a local radio talk show for "refusing to
create a separate pre-season section" for the team --
"something the newspaper regularly does for other local
major-league teams" (Peter Edmonston, INSIDE.com, 11/20).
MO' MONEY, MO' PROBLEMS: Meanwhile, Cuban was fined
$15,000 by the NBA as a result of his actions in a 99-78
Mavs loss last Wednesday in Phoenix for "confronting and
verbally abusing officials" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/21).
