"Shark" on ABC's "Shark Tank"
Mark Cuban, owner of the 2011 World Champion Dallas Mavericks and best-selling author of How to Win at the Sport of Business, was an entrepreneur from the early age of 23, when he sold garbage bags door to door. Today Cuban is the highly successful entrepreneur and investor who founded AXS TV, Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions. He has also been an investor in start-ups including Mahalo, JungleCents.com, motionlift.com, Filesanywhere.com, Naked Pizza and 140Fire.com
Named a winner of the GQ Men of the Year in 2006 and included in The New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas, Cuban is recognized as being among the most influential people in both the cable and sports industries. He may be best known for his purchase of the Dallas Mavericks on January 4, 2000. Under his leadership, the team's home games have become a total entertainment experience. Despite initial criticism, he added much more to the usual game-day experience options, like the Mavericks ManiAACs. His successful efforts have brought a sense of pride and passion to the fans.
Prior to his purchase of the Mavericks, Cuban co-founded Broadcast.com, the leading provider of multi-media and streaming on the Internet. Broadcast.com was sold to Yahoo! Inc. in July, 1999. MicroSolutions, a leading national systems integrator, was co-founded by Cuban and partner Martin Woodall in 1983, and later sold to CompuServe.
Currently, Cuban is the owner and chairman of AXS TV (www.axs.tv). AXS TV and its sister network, HDNet Movies, are among the only remaining independently owned and operated TV networks in the U.S. and the first in the world to be programmed exclusively in high definition. Cuban takes personal responsibility for the programming on both networks, creating a unique schedule of innovative and original programs. Under his leadership and that of its co-founder, Philip Garvin, AXS TV continues to outperform networks owned by much larger corporations and those with greater distribution.
Cuban also co-owns the Landmark Theater chain, Magnolia Pictures and Magnolia Home Video along with partner Todd Wagner. With the release of the movie "Bubble" in 2005, Magnolia and Landmark Theaters pioneered the release of the movie's "day and date," meaning the movie was released in theaters, on TV (HDNet Movies) and on DVD all on the same day. Taking this process one step further, Cuban created the "Ultra VOD" platform, releasing movies to video-on-demand on both cable and satellite up to four weeks prior to their release in theaters.
You can follow Cuban on Twitter @mcuban
PERSONAL INFORMATION
HOMETOWN Pittsburgh, PA
BIRTHDATE July 31
