Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an outspoken billionaire who is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team.
Early childhood
Mark Cuban was the stereotypical school nerd, who wore thick glasses and earned good grades. His first foray in the business world was as a garbage bag salesman, when he sold garbage bags around his neighborhood. Like many children, he dreamed of becoming rich and famous.
College
Cuban earned his way to college by giving disco dancing lessons and by writing a chain letter that made him profits. He chose Indiana University because of the school's cheap price compared to the nation's other top ten business schools. Even in college, Cuban was seen as controversial by some, his principal admonished him for taking advanced courses during his freshman year and he was dissuaded from getting his MBA after getting a bachelor's degree.
Computer businessman
Almost immediately after college, Cuban decided to pursue one of his lifelong dreams by getting a business in the computer field, this despite the fact Cuban had no knowledge of computers. In 1983, he founded MicroSolutions , which became a major company in the industry and was sold by Cuban in the 1990s to CompuServe for six million dollars.
Mark Cuban moved to Dallas, soon after selling his company. Eager to follow his favorite college basketball team, he had an idea of broadcasting live games and events through the internet, which led to him creating Broadcast.com. In 1999, Cuban earned more than $2 billion when Yahoo! bought the business.
Basketball owner
With the Yahoo! payment, Cuban decided to pursue his love of basketball and bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million. The sale was finalized on February 14, 2000.
Cuban has become one of the most controversial NBA team owners in history, piling up a total of more than $1 million in fines, mostly for controversial statements against the league and its referees. In one incident, he said the league's director of officials, Ed Rush , wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen. When Dairy Queen management took offense, Cuban took up the challenge and worked for day at a Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas, where eager fans lined up in the street to get a smoothie from the owner of the Mavericks.
While he has been outspoken, he has also been an important part of getting the Mavericks to be championship contenders once again. He acquired such players as Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, Nick Van Exel and, before the 2003 season, Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison.
Cuban is a declared Mavericks fan. He flies in his $41 million private airplane to attend road games, and he always shows up at Mavericks games, whether at home or on the road, wearing Mavericks t-shirts or jerseys. Because of this, many magazines and newspapers have called him "the fans' dream (come true)" and "the Cuban missile crisis."
His airplane is another of Cuban's dot-com success stories — He purchased it from the eBay Internet auction site, and at the time, it was the largest purchase ever made on eBay.
Media and entertainment
Cuban continues to work with former Broadcast.com partner Todd Wagner in another venture, 2929 Entertainment. The firm recently purchased Landmark Theatre Corporation, a chain of 185 art house movie theaters. The company is also behind the updated version of the TV show, Star Search that is currently being broadcast on CBS.
On the November 2003, premiere issue of Best magazine , Cuban was featured on the cover, announcing one of his newest products, High Definition Television. Through 2929 Entertainment, Cuban also purchased HDNet, the first high-definition satellite television network.
In February 2004, Cuban announced that he would be working with ABC television to produce a new reality television series called The Benefactor. The premise of the six-episode series involved 16 contestants vying to win US $1 million by participating in various games and contests, with their performances being judged by Cuban. It premiered on September 13 2004. He claims that he will finance Grokster in the MGM v. Grokster Supreme Court case.
External links
Last updated: 08-07-2005 18:54:23
Last updated: 09-02-2005 16:52:30
