Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban takes hit by selling 'gambling money' Facebook stake

Washington -  Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has sold his stake in the social network Facebook, after admitting that he took a hit in the market. 

He made the move less than a month after initially disclosing he had built a position in the company following its bungled initial public offering.

"I took my hit, my thesis was wrong," Cuban told CNBC.

"I thought we'd get a quick bounce just with some excitement about the stock. I was wrong, and when you're wrong you don't wait, you just get out. I took a beating and left," he added.

In May, Cuban revealed that he had snatched up 150,000 shares of Facebook in three separate purchases.

He said he bought 50,000 shares at 33 dollars, another 50,000 at 31.97 dollars and 50,000 at 32.50 dollars.

Presently, all three investments are underwater, with Facebook still down about 18 percent from its 38 dollars IPO price.

Cuban had earlier described the move as 'a trade, not an investment' and compared it to trading baseball cards, but now he called it 'gambling money', The New York Post reports.

"It was gambling money, to be honest with you," the paper quoted him, as saying.

"Any time you try to time the market, you get what you deserve. Sometimes you're right. Sometimes you're wrong. This time I was wrong," he added.