Mark Cuban Low Cost Drug Company
Mark Cuban does not seem to have a problem with companies going “woke.” He debated fellow entrepreneur Chamath Palihapitiya on Twitter, otherwise known as “X.” The underlying issue was whether or not the saying “Go Woke, Go Broke” is accurate.
The term “woke” is a slang term used for whether or not a person or an organization is socially aware, or accepting of a specific liberal political perspective.
The phrase “go woke, go broke” is a political catchphrase used by some right-wing US conservatives to refer to the actual or perceived stock value drops or loss in sales of companies or corporations that publicly support progressive causes, such as the rights of women, LGBT people and people of color (termed as “going woke” by its opponents).
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It is difficult to say definitively whether or not there is a causal relationship between a company’s “wokeness” and its financial performance. Some studies have found that companies that are perceived as being woke may actually experience a boost in sales, while others have found that they may experience a decline.
“Can you name one woke company that has gone broke?” Mark Cuban asked Palihapitiya.
And Mark Cuban was not moved when presented with lists of companies that failed after going woke. He challenged the assumption that all of the named firms had in fact done so or that their failures could be attributed to wake policies.
“Personally, I don’t think what happened to any of these companies had anything to do with being Woke, or partisan,” he said. “Not even close. I think this about social media being so performative.”
According to his official bio, in 1995, Mark Cuban and long-time friend Todd Wagner came up with an internet based solution to not being able to listen to Hoosiers Basketball games out in Texas. That solution was Broadcast.com – streaming audio over the internet. In just four short years, Broadcast.com (then Audionet) would be sold to Yahoo for $5.6 billion dollars. His trade to collar his shares of Yahoo! stock received in the sale of Broadcast.com in advance of the popping of the Internet bubble has been called one of the top 10 trades of all time.
