Austin Wheeler Mark CubanFrom Wikipedia the free encyclopediaYou have new messages last change Jump to navigation search Mark Cuban Mark Cuban with the Larry O Brien trophy at the Dallas Mavericks championship parade Born July 31 1958 1958 07 31 age 53 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania U S Ethnicity Jewish Alma mater Indiana University Occupation Owner of Dallas Mavericks co owner of 2929 Entertainment and Chairman of HDNet Net worth US 2 5 billion 2011 1 Spouse Tiffany Stewart m 2002 start 2002 Marriage Tiffany Stewart to Mark Cuban Location linkback en wikipedia org wiki Mark Cuban Children 2 daughters 1 son 2 Mark Cuban born July 31 1958 3 is an American business magnate and investor He is the owner of the National Basketball Association s Dallas Mavericks 4 Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet 5 He is also a part time shark investor on the television series Shark Tank In 2011 Cuban wrote an e book How to Win at the Sport of Business in which he chronicles his life experiences in business and sports Contents hide 1 Biography 1 1 Family 2 Early career 3 Business career 3 1 Magnolia Pictures 3 2 Insider trading allegation 4 Dallas Mavericks 4 1 Ownership 4 2 NBA policy controversies 5 Other sports businesses 5 1 Major League Baseball 6 Political leanings 7 Fallen Patriot Fund 8 The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan 9 Film and television credits 9 1 Acting roles 9 2 As himself 10 References 11 External links edit BiographyCuban was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 6 7 and grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt Lebanon in a Jewish 8 working class family His last name was shortened from Chabenisky when his Russian grandparents landed on Ellis Island 9 Cuban s father Norton was an automobile upholsterer 6 10 11 Cuban s first step into the business world occurred at age 12 when he sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive basketball shoes 6 12 While in school he held a variety of jobs including bartender disco dancing instructor and party promoter He paid for college by collecting and selling stamps and once gained about 1 100 from starting a chain letter 6 Rather than attending high school for his senior year Cuban enrolled as a full time student at the University of Pittsburgh After one year at the University of Pittsburgh he transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor s degree in business administration 13 edit FamilyIn September 2002 Cuban married Tiffany Stewart an advertising executive in Barbados 14 with a wedding reception at the American Airlines Center Their first daughter Alexis Sofia was born on September 25 2005 their second daughter Alyssa was born in 2007 15 Tiffany and Mark also have a son born in early 2010 2 The family lives in the Preston Hollow area of Dallas in a 24 000 square foot 2 200 m2 mansion 16 edit Early careerIn 1982 Cuban moved to Dallas Texas Cuban first found work as a bartender 17 18 then as a salesperson for Your Business Software one of the first PC software retailers in Dallas He was terminated less than a year later after meeting with a client to procure new business instead of opening the store 19 Cuban started a company MicroSolutions with support from his previous customers from Your Business Software MicroSolutions was initially a system integrator and software reseller The company was an early proponent of technologies such as Carbon Copy Lotus Notes and CompuServe 20 One of the company s largest clients was Perot Systems 21 In 1990 Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe then a subsidiary of H R Block for 6 million 22 He retained approximately 2 million after taxes on the deal 23 In 1995 Cuban and fellow Indiana University alumnus Todd Wagner started Audionet combining their mutual interest in college basketball and webcasting With a single server and an ISDN line 24 Audionet became Broadcast com in 1998 By 1999 Broadcast com had grown to 330 employees and 13 5 million in revenue for the second quarter 25 In 1999 during the dot com boom Broadcast com was acquired by Yahoo for 5 9 billion in Yahoo stock 26 edit Business careerAfter the sale of Broadcast com Cuban diversified his wealth to avoid exposure to a market crash 27 As of 2011 Cuban is No 459 on Forbes list of World s Richest People with a net worth of 2 5 billion 28 The Guinness Book of Records credits Cuban with the largest single e commerce transaction after he paid 40