Mark Cuban Is Quitting ‘Shark Tank’ — What to Know

Mark Cuban is swimming away from the tank. The Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur confirmed during an appearance on the Showtime podcast All The Smoke that he is leaving ABC’s hit reality series Shark Tank after 12 years. Cuban said he is planning to leave after Season 16. The show is currently in its 15th season with “sharks” Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary.

“Next year, our 16th year, is gonna be my last year, so I got one more year to go,” Cuban told former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, the hosts of the podcast. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Cuban shared, “I just want to have a couple summers with my teens before they go off on their own. Nothing to do with the show. I love it. I love being on it. I love what [it] represents and how it motivates entrepreneurs around the world.”

Cuban joined Shark Tank as one of the sharks, or permanent investors, back in 2011 when it was in its second season. Throughout his 12-year run, he was a big player in the game, and in Season 6, according to CNBC, he even made the biggest offer in the show’s history to Arum, Soo and Dawoon Kang. The two sisters, behind dating app Coffee Meets Bagel, sought $500,000 for 5% of their company, and after some back and forth about the success of the company, Cuban asked, “If I offered you $30 million for the [entire] company, would you take it?” While the sisters ultimately turned the offer down, Cuban previously told Forbes that he has invested $29 million in at least 85 companies since joining Shark Tank.

“On the one hand, I understand that nobody should have this much wealth, but it is what it is,” he said. “You make the best of it, and I don’t feel guilty about it at all. I busted my ass to get here.”

Reflecting on his time on the show, Cuban told Barnes and Jackson, “I love it because it sends the message the American dream is alive and well. 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, f-. But we’re helping them, right?” He added that he’s “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.”

Shark Tank debuted on ABC in 2009. The show is currently in its 15th season, with Cuban, Corcoran, Greiner, Herjavec, John, and O’Leary all appearing on the show. Cuban said he will exit after Season 16.