Austin Wheeler   Mark CubanFrom Wikipedia the free encyclopediaYou have new messages last change Jump to navigation search  Mark Cuban   Mark Cuban with the Larry OBrien trophy at the Dallas Mavericks championship parade  Born July    age  Pittsburgh Pennsylvania US  Ethnicity Jewish  Alma mater Indiana University  Occupation Owner of Dallas Mavericks coowner of  Entertainment and Chairman of HDNet  Net worth  US billion   Spouse Tiffany Stewart m  start Marriage Tiffany Stewart to Mark Cuban Location linkbackenwikipediaorgwikiMarkCuban  Children  daughters  son   Mark Cuban born July   is an American business magnate and investor He is the owner of the National Basketball Associations Dallas Mavericks Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures and the chairman of the HDTV cable network HDNet He is also a parttime shark investor on the television series Shark Tank In  Cuban wrote an ebook How to Win at the Sport of Business in which he chronicles his life experiences in business and sports  Contents hide   Biography   Family  Early career  Business career   Magnolia Pictures  Insider trading allegation  Dallas Mavericks   Ownership  NBA policy controversies  Other sports businesses   Major League Baseball  Political leanings  Fallen Patriot Fund  The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan  Film and television credits   Acting roles  As himself  References  External links    edit BiographyCuban was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and grew up in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mt Lebanon in a Jewish workingclass family His last name was shortened from Chabenisky when his Russian grandparents landed on Ellis Island Cubans father Norton was an automobile upholsterer Cubans first step into the business world occurred at age  when he sold garbage bags to pay for a pair of expensive basketball shoes 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  from starting a chain letter  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  with a bachelors degree in business administration  edit FamilyIn September  Cuban married Tiffany Stewart an advertising executive in Barbados with a wedding reception at the American Airlines Center Their first daughter Alexis Sofia was born on September   their second daughter Alyssa was born in  Tiffany and Mark also have a son born in early  The family lives in the Preston Hollow area of Dallas in a squarefoot  m mansion  edit Early careerIn  Cuban moved to Dallas Texas Cuban first found work as a bartender 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  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 One of the companys largest clients was Perot Systems In  Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServethen a subsidiary of HR Blockfor  million He retained approximately  million after taxes on the deal  In  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 Audionet became Broadcastcom in  By  Broadcastcom had grown to  employees and  million in revenue for the second quarter In  during the dot com boom Broadcastcom was acquired by Yahoo for  billion in Yahoo stock  edit Business careerAfter the sale of Broadcastcom Cuban diversified his wealth to avoid exposure to a market crash As of  Cuban is No  on Forbes list of Worlds Richest People with a net worth of  billion The Guinness Book of Records credits Cuban with the largest single ecommerce transaction after he paid  million for his Gulfstream V jet in October   Cuban continues to work with Wagner in another venture  Entertainment which provides vertically integrated production and distribution of films and video  On September   the firm purchased Landmark Theatres a chain of  arthouse movie theaters The company is also responsible for the updated version of the TV show Star Search which was broadcast on CBS  Entertainment released Bubble a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh in theaters and on DVD on the same day in January  as a simultaneous release  Cuban was featured on the cover of the November  premiere issue of Best magazine announcing the arrival of High Definition Television Cuban also was cofounder with Philip Garvin of HDNet the first highdefinition satellite television network  In February  Cuban announced that he would be working with ABC television to produce a reality television series The Benefactor The premise of the sixepisode series involved  contestants vying to win  million by participating in various contests with their performances being judged by Cuban It premiered on September   but due to poor ratings was canceled before the full season aired  Cuban financially supported Grokster in the Supreme Court case MGM v Grokster He is also a partner in Synergy Sports Technology a web based basketball scouting and video delivery tool used by many NBA teams  He has also spearheaded ventures in the social software and Distributed Networking industries Hes an owner of IceRocket a search engine which scours the blogosphere for content Cuban was also a partner in RedSwoosha company which uses peertopeer technology to deliver rich media including video and software to a users PC later acquired by Akamai He was also an investor in Weblogs Inc which was acquired by AOL  In  Cuban invested in Brondell Inc a San Francisco startup making a hightech toilet seat called a Swash that works like a bidet but mounts on a standard toilet People tend to approach technology the same way whether its in front of them or behind them Cuban joked He also invested in Goowy Media Inc a San Diego internet software startup In April  Sirius Satellite Radio announced that Cuban would host his own weekly radio talk show Mark Cubans Radio Maverick However the show has not materialized  In July  Cuban financed Sharesleuthcom a web site created by former St Louis PostDispatch investigative reporter Christopher Carey to uncover fraud and misinformation in publicly traded companies Experimenting with a new business model for making online journalism financially viable Cuban disclosed that he would take positions in the shares of companies mentioned in Sharesleuthcom in advance of publication Business and legal analysts questioned the appropriateness of shorting a stock prior to making public pronouncements which are likely to result in losses in that stocks value Cuban insisted that the practice is legal in view of full disclosure  In April  Cuban partnered with Mascot Books to publish his first childrens book Lets Go Mavs In November  he wrote a word ebook How to Win at the Sport of Business If I Can Do It You Can Do It which he described as a way to get motivated  In October  Cuban started Bailoutsleuthcom as a grassroots online portal for oversight over the US governments  billion dollar bailout of financial institutions  In April  Cuban placed Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures up for sale but he added that he wouldnt sell the companies unless the offer was very very compelling  edit Magnolia PicturesCuban owns a film distributor called Magnolia Pictures Through Magnolia he financed the film Redacted a docudrama based on the Mahmudiyah killings the March  rape murder and burning of yearold Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza alJanabi and the murder of her parents and younger sister by US soldiers Two of the soldiers were convicted and three pleaded guilty receiving sentences up to  years In September  Cuban in his capacity as owner of Magnolia Pictures redacted disturbing photographs from the concluding moments of the film citing copyrightspermissions issues  Also in  Cuban was reportedly interested in distributing an edition of the film Loose Change which posits a  conspiracy theory through Magnolia with Charlie Sheen narrating Cuban told the New York Post We are having discussions about distributing the existing video with Charlies involvement as a narrator not in making a new feature We are also looking for productions with an opposing vie