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Mark Cuban Bio, Founder of Broadcast.com

Former disco dancing instructor Mark Cuban was one of the few who was able to turn the dotcom boom into billions. Born July 31, 1958, in Pittsburgh, Cuban worked a variety of jobs as a boy, paying for college by collecting and re-selling stamps. After earning his bachelor's degree in business administration from Indiana University, he moved to Dallas, Texas, and soon started MicroSolutions, a software reseller and systems integration company. Cuban had a strong sense of the computer market, which at that time was still new, and the company thrived -- he sold it to CompuServe in 1990 for $6 million.

The venture that made him a billionaire was Broadcast.com. Cameron Broadcast Systems had been founded by Cameron Christopher Jaeb with the goal of broadcasting live sporting events to individual subscribers. In 1992, the company shifted its focus to the internet rather than the custom devices originally envisioned, and three years later, Cuban was brought on board. At the IPO in 1998, the renamed Broadcast.com set a record for single-day growth, closing at $62.75 per share after an $18 opening. Cuban became a billionaire overnight, and a year later the company was sold to Yahoo.

Cuban's ventures and investments have been varied since then. A lifelong basketball fan, he bought the Dallas Mavericks in 2000 (purchasing the team from H. Ross Perot, one of his clients at MicroSolutions), shortly after the Broadcast.com sale, and unlike many owners, he has been the public face of the team -- even more than the coach. He attends every game, and sits in the stands wearing a team jersey rather than watching from a skybox; and he has been fined a number of times for criticizing referees or the NBA commissioner David Stern. Under Cuban's watch, the team has advanced to the playoffs every year, and made it to their first Finals; he has notably pioneered widespread, aggressive scouting of players outside of North America, a practice that has become important to the NBA of the 21st century. The franchise is now the third most valuable in the league, after the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks -- teams with much better established fanbases.

His interest in sports has led him to explore other ventures, including the creation of a mixed martial arts league and a new American football league. In the summer of 2007 he announced his intentions to bid on the Chicago Cubs when the team goes on sale -- much speculation has surrounded this, as the team is ripe for a Mavericks-like turnaround and the sport is one that tends to reward deep pockets more readily than football.

In addition to his sports and internet ventures, Cuban owns 2929 Entertainment, which in turn owns Landmark Theaters, and produces various film and television content. His Magnolia Pictures company has produced two well-known documentaries, 2006's Jesus Camp and 2007's Redacted.

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