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Cuban worked at Dairy Queen for a one day photo op.Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an outspoken billionaire who is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team.
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Early years
Cuban's first foray in the business world was as a garbage bag salesman, when he sold garbage bags around his neighborhood in the south hills of Pittsburgh.
Cuban earned his way to college by giving disco dancing lessons and by writing chain letters. He chose Indiana University because of the school's low cost compared to the nation's other top business schools. Even in college, Cuban was seen as controversial by some: his advisor admonished him for taking advanced courses during his freshman year and he was dissuaded from getting his MBA after getting a bachelor's degree.
Business success
Shortly after college, in 1983, Cuban founded MicroSolutions, which became a major force in the computer industry. He sold the company 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 about $5.7 billion when Yahoo! bought the business.
Sports
With the Yahoo! payment, Cuban decided to pursue his love of basketball and bought the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million from a group led by H. Ross Perot, Jr.. 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 a day at a Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas, where eager fans lined up in the street to get a Blizzard 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, Nick Van Exel and Antawn Jamison, who brought the team forward. However, he also received his share of criticism for following an erratic hire-and-fire policy each postseason and providing big contracts for underperforming players, such as Shawn Bradley, Michael Finley or Erick Dampier.
Cuban is a dedicated 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)."
While attending a Chicago Cubs baseball game on July 15, 2005, Cuban stated that he would consider purchasing his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates if they became available. He also stated interest in joining the current Pirates ownership group.
As of 2005, Cuban has also expressed an interest in buying the NHL's St. Louis Blues.
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 with Google 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. Cuban once appeared on ESPN's talk TV show Around the Horn.
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 but was cancelled before the full season aired. He claims that he will finance Grokster in the MGM v. Grokster Supreme Court case.
As of August, 9, 2005, Cuban is also spearheading ventures in both the social software and distributed networking industries. In social software, Cuban runs icerocket.com, soon to be known as Blogscour.com. This search engine scours the blogosphere for content. In the distributed networking industry, Cuban is a partner in RedSwoosh--a company that enhances the coordination of distributed networking (i.e. helps content providers deliver rich media, including video and software to a user's PC).
Trivia
- Was in attendance at the 2003 WWE Survivor Series where he was set up by Eric Bischoff into having a fight after when Bischoff threatened to escort him out the building via security or by him kicking his ass. Cuban shoved Bischoff in which he knocked him off his feet only to turn around and be greeted with an R.K.O by Randy Orton, thus adding another "legend" to his list of legends he's "killed"