Mark Cuban biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Entrepreneur, professional sports team owner. Born Mark Cuban on July 31, 1958, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Cuban had a typically middle-class childhood. His father, Norton, spent nearly half a century working at a car upholstery shop. His grandfather, Morris Chobanisky, emigrated from Russia and fed his family by selling merchandise out of the back of a truck.

Like his grandfather before him, though, Cuban inherited a tenacity for making a deal and carving out a better life for himself. He was a hard worker, too. At the age of 12, he sold sets of garbage bags to save up for a pair of shoes he liked. In high school he earned extra dollars any way he could, mainly by becoming a stamp and coin salesman.

His go-getter attitude extended to the classroom as well. He started taking psychology classes at the University of Pittsburgh his junior year in high school. He then skipped his senior year and enrolled full time at the college.

After his freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh Cuban, transferred to Indiana University. His understanding of supply and demand extended far outside the classroom. Needing to make money to continue on in college (he was paying his own tuition) Cuban started giving dance lessons. That endeavor soon led him to hosting lavish disco parties at the Bloomington National Guard armory.

Business Ventures

After graduating in 1981, Cuban moved back to Pittsburgh and took a job with Mellon Bank, just as the company was ready to switch over to computers. Cuban immersed himself the study of machines and networking. But he had no real desire to hang out in his home city for too long, and in 1982 he left Pittsburgh for Dallas.

Cuban eventually landed a job selling software but, deciding he could do better on his own, formed his own consulting business, MicrosSolutions. Cuban was soon an expert in the field of computers and computer networking. He also had a knack for building a smart, profitable company. In 1990, Cuban sold the firm to CompuServe for $6 million.

His fortune making, however, was far from done. Sensing that a new world awaited with the development of the Internet, Cuban and a business partner, Indiana alum Todd Wagner, started AudioNet in 1995. Its formation was rooted in a desire to be able to listen to Indian Hoosier basketball games online. The company, despite its early critics, proved to be a smash success. Renamed Broadcast.com, the firm went public in 1998 and soon saw its stock reach $200 a share. A year later, Wagner and Cuban sold out to Yahoo! for nearly $6 billion.

Purchasing an NBA Team

In 2000, Mark Cuban introduced himself to the NBA community when he purchased the Dallas Mavericks for $285 million from Ross Perot, Jr.