`  == 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 million for his Gulfstream V jet in October 1999.[29]  Cuban continues to work with Wagner in another venture, 2929 Entertainment, which provides vertically integrated production and distribution of films and video.[30]  On September 24, 2003, the firm purchased Landmark Theatres, a chain of 58 arthouse movie theaters.[31] The company is also responsible for the updated version of the TV show Star Search, which was broadcast on CBS.[32] 2929 Entertainment released Bubble, a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, in theaters and on DVD on the same day in January 2006 as a simultaneous release.  Cuban was featured on the cover of the November 2003 premiere issue of Best magazine[33] announcing the arrival of High Definition Television. Cuban also was co-founder (with Philip Garvin) of HDNet, the first high-definition satellite television network.[34]  In February 2004, Cuban announced that he would be working with ABC television to produce a reality television series, The Benefactor. The premise of the six-episode series involved 16 contestants vying to win $1 million by participating in various contests, with their performances being judged by Cuban. It premiered on September 13, 2004 but due to poor ratings was canceled before the full season aired.[35]  Cuban financially supported Grokster in the Supreme Court case, MGM v. Grokster.[36] 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. He's an owner of IceRocket, a search engine which scours the blogosphere for content.[37] Cuban was also a partner in RedSwoosh[38]—a company which uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver rich media, including video and software to a user's PC, later acquired by Akamai. He was also an investor in Weblogs, Inc. which was acquired by AOL.[39]  In 2005, Cuban invested in Brondell Inc., a San Francisco startup making a high-tech 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 it's in front of them, or behind them,`` Cuban joked.[40] He also invested in Goowy Media Inc., a San Diego internet software startup. In April 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio announced that Cuban would host his own weekly radio talk show, Mark Cuban's Radio Maverick.[41] However, the show has not materialized.  In July 2006, Cuban financed Sharesleuth.com,[42] a web site created by former St. Louis Post-Dispatch 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 Sharesleuth.com 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 stock's value. Cuban insisted that the practice is legal in view of full disclosure.[43][44][45]  In April 2007, Cuban partnered with Mascot Books to publish his first children's book, Let's Go, Mavs!. In November 2011, he wrote a 30,000-word e-book, ``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``.[46]  In October 2008, Cuban started Bailoutsleuth.com[47] as a grassroots, online portal for oversight over the US government's $700 billion dollar ``bailout`` of financial institutions.  In April 2011, Cuban placed Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures up for sale, but he added that he wouldn't sell the companies unless the offer was ``very, very compelling``.[48]  [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 2006 rape, murder, and burning of 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and the murder of her parents and younger sister by U.S. soldiers. Two of the soldiers were convicted and three pleaded guilty, receiving sentences up to 110 years.[49] In September 2007, Cuban, in his capacity as owner of Magnolia Pictures, ``redacted`` disturbing photographs from the concluding moments of the film, citing copyrights/permissions issues.[50]  Also in 2007, Cuban was reportedly interested in distributing an edition of the film Loose Change, which posits a 9/11 conspiracy theory, through Magnolia, with Charlie Sheen narrating. Cuban told the New York Post, ``We are having discussions about distributing the existing video with Charlie's involvement as a narrator, not in making a new feature. We are also looking for productions with an opposing vie