| Mark Cuban | |
|---|---|
Mark Cuban with the Larry O'Brien trophy at the Dallas Mavericks championship parade |
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| Born | July 31, 1958 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| 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–present) |
| 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.
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Cuban 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]
In 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]
In 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]
After the sale, 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]
On January 4, 2000, Cuban purchased a majority stake in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks for $285 million from H. Ross Perot, Jr..[49][50]
In the 20 years before Cuban bought the team, the Mavs had a winning percentage of 40%, and playoff record of 21–32.[51][52] In the ten years following, the team won 69% of their regular season games and reached the playoffs in each of those seasons. The Mavs playoff record with Cuban is 49 wins and 57 losses, including their first trip to the NBA Finals in 2006, where they lost to the Miami Heat.[53] On June 12, 2011, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals. Historically, NBA team owners publicly play more passive roles and watch basketball games from skyboxes; Cuban sits alongside fans while donning team jerseys. Cuban flies his private Gulfstream V to attend road games.[54]
In May 2010, H. Ross Perot, Jr. who retained 5% ownership filed a lawsuit against Cuban, alleging the franchise was insolvent or in imminent danger of insolvency. In June 2010, Cuban responded in a court filing maintaining Perot is wrongly seeking money to offset some $100 million in losses on the Victory Park real estate development.[55]
Cuban's ownership has been the source of extensive media attention and controversy involving league policies.[56]
Cuban has been fined by the NBA, mostly for critical statements about the league and referees, at least $1,665,000 for 13 incidents.[57] In a June 30, 2006 interview, Mavericks player Dirk Nowitzki said about Cuban:[58]
He's got to learn how to control himself as well as the players do. We can't lose our temper all the time on the court or off the court, and I think he's got to learn that, too. He's got to improve in that area and not yell at the officials the whole game. I don't think that helps us ... He sits right there by our bench. I think it's a bit much. But we all told him this before. It's nothing new. The game starts, and he's already yelling at them. So he needs to know how to control himself a little.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Cuban said that he matches NBA fines with charitable donations of equal amounts.[59] In a nationally publicized incident, he criticized the league's manager of officials, Ed T. Rush, saying that he "wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen". Dairy Queen management took offense to Cuban's comments and invited him to manage a Dairy Queen restaurant for a day. Cuban accepted the company's invitation and worked for a day at a Dairy Queen in Coppell, Texas, where fans lined up in the street to get a Blizzard from the owner of the Mavericks.[60]
During the 2005–06 NBA season, Cuban started a booing campaign when former Maverick player Michael Finley returned to play against the Mavs as a member of the San Antonio Spurs.[61] In a playoff series between the Mavericks and Spurs, Cuban cursed Spurs forward Bruce Bowen[62] and was fined $200,000 by the NBA for rushing onto the court and criticizing NBA officials.[63] After the 2006 NBA Finals, Cuban was fined $250,000 by the NBA for repeated misconduct following the Mavericks' loss to the Miami Heat in Game Five of the 2006 NBA Finals.
In February 2007, Cuban publicly criticized NBA Finals MVP Dwyane Wade and declared that he would get fined if he made any comments about what he thought really happened in the 2006 NBA Finals.[64][65]
On January 16, 2009, after a reviewing, the league fined Cuban $25,000 for yelling at Denver Nuggets player J. R. Smith at the end of the first half on a Mavericks-at-Nuggets game played on January 13.[66][67] Cuban was apparently incensed that Smith had thrown an elbow that barely missed Mavericks forward Antoine Wright.[68] Cuban offered to match the fine with a donation to a charity of Smith's choosing. Cuban stated that if he doesn't hear from Smith that he will donate the money to the NHL Players' Association Goals and Dreams Fund in the names of Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore.[69] In May 2009, Cuban made a reference to the Denver Nuggets being "thugs" after a loss to the Nuggets in game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals. The statement was geared towards the Nuggets and their fans. As he passed Kenyon Martin's mother, who was seated near Cuban as he left the arena, he pointed at her and said, "that includes your son". This controversial comment revisited media attention on Cuban yet again. Cuban issued an apology the next day referencing the poor treatment of away fans in arenas around the league. The league issued a statement stating that they would not fine him.[70]
On May 22, 2010, Cuban was fined $100,000 for comments he made during a television interview about trying to sign LeBron James.[71]
In 2005, Cuban expressed interest in buying the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins.[72] In 2006, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Cuban had joined an investment group with Dan Marino, Kevin Millevoi, Andy Murstein, and Walnut Capital principals Gregg Perelman and Todd Reidbord to acquire the Penguins.[73]
Cuban has also expressed interest in owning a Major League Baseball team, such as the Pittsburgh Pirates[74] or the Chicago Cubs.[75] It was announced in April 2007 that the Cubs would go on sale once the Chicago Tribune's sale to Sam Zell is finalized, but Cuban refused to speculate on purchasing the club when it was not officially on the market.[76] On July 12, 2007, Cuban sent in an application to MLB to purchase the Chicago Cubs, which along with Wrigley Field and the Cubs Television Contract could go as high as $1 billion.[77] On October 8, 2007, he said he would likely bid on the team, calling it "an opportunity [he] couldn't let slip by" and also reiterated his interest in the team on The Jimmy Kimmel Show on November 3, 2007.[78] In July 2008, he submitted an initial bid of $1.3 Billion to buy the Cubs and was invited to participate in a second round of bidding along with several other potential ownership groups.[79] Cuban was not selected to participate in the final bidding process in January 2009. On August 4, 2010, Cuban actively bid to buy the Texas Rangers. Cuban stopped bids after 1:00 am, having placed bids totaling almost 600 million dollars. He had outbid ex-pitcher Nolan Ryan, but lost the deal before the Rangers played the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 World Series. In February 2011, Cuban said he was open to becoming a minority owner of the New York Mets after owner Fred Wilpon announced that he was planning to sell up to 25% interest in the team.[80]
In June 2011, Cuban was mentioned as considering the purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers.[81]
In April, 2010, Cuban loaned the newly formed UFL football league $5 million dollars. He did not own a franchise and he was not involved in day-to-day operations of the league nor of any of its teams.[82] In January 2011, he filed a federal lawsuit against the UFL for their failure to repay the loan by the October 6, 2010 deadline.[83]
On September 12, 2007, Cuban said that he was in talks with Vince, Linda, Stephanie, and Shane McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment in creating a mixed martial arts company that would compete with Ultimate Fighting Championship.[84] Cuban is now a bondholder of Zuffa, the UFC's parent company.[85]
Cuban followed up his intentions by organizing "HDNet Fights", a mixed martial arts promotion which airs exclusively on HDNet and premiered on October 13, 2007 with a card headlined by a fight between Erik Paulson and Jeff Ford as well as fights featuring veterans Drew Fickett and Justin Eilers.[86]
At World Wrestling Entertainment's 2003 Survivor Series, Cuban was involved in a staged altercation with RAW GM Eric Bischoff and RAW Superstar Randy Orton.[87] On December 7, 2009, Cuban acted as the guest host of WWE Raw, where he got revenge on Randy Orton for his attack on him at Survivor Series 2003, where he was the guest referee in his match against Kofi Kingston when he gave Kingston a fast count. He then announced Orton would face Kingston at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. At the end of the show, Cuban was slammed through a table by then No.1 contender for the WWE Championship, Sheamus.[88]
Since 2009, Mark has been a panelist at the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference[89]
Cuban is an admirer of author/philosopher Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.[90] About Rand's novel The Fountainhead, he said: "[It] was incredibly motivating to me. It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it."[91] His political views lean towards libertarianism.[92] He held a position on the centrist Unity08 political organization's advisory council.[93] While learning towards libertarianism, Cuban posted an entry on his blog claiming paying more taxes to be the most patriotic thing someone can do.[94]
Cuban has donated $7,000 to political campaigns, $6,000 going to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. $1,000 went to Democratic California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.[95]
On February 8, 2008, Cuban announced his endorsement for Michael Bloomberg for President in the 2008 presidential election on his blog, concluding a post lamenting the current state of U.S. politics: "Are you listening Mayor Bloomberg? For less than the cost of opening a tent pole movie, you can change the status quo."[96]
Cuban financed the film Redacted through Magnolia Pictures, 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 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.[97] 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.[98]
Cuban started the Fallen Patriot Fund to help families of U.S. military persons killed or injured during the Iraq War, personally matching the first $1 million in contributions with funds from the Mark Cuban Foundation which is run by his brother Brian Cuban.[99][100]
On November 17, 2008, it was reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil suit against Mark Cuban relating to alleged insider trading in the shares of Mamma.com, now known as Copernic.[101] A stock dilution occurred shortly after a trade in June 2004, giving hints of inside knowledge at the time of the trade, and Cuban allegedly was saved from a loss of $750,000.[102] The SEC claims that Cuban ordered the sale of his holdings in Mamma.com after he had been confidentially approached by the company to participate in a transaction likely to dilute shares of current shareholders. Cuban disputes the charges, saying he had not agreed to keep the information secret.[103] On his blog, Cuban contended the facts were false and that the investigation was "a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion".[104]
In July 2009 the U.S. District Court dismissed the charges against Cuban. But the SEC appealed, and in September 2010 an appeals court said that the district court had erred, that further proceedings would be necessary to address the merits of the suit.[105]
On February 9, 2009, Cuban announced his own "stimulus plan", involving what he called "an open source exchange of ideas."[106] His plan entails individuals posting ideas that fit certain criteria (breaking even within 60 days, profitability within 90 days, no advertising, certain banking controls for Cuban) in the hopes that either Cuban will fund them, or other individuals will take up the ideas thereby stimulating the economy.[107]
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