MARK CUBAN
Mark Cuban was an entrepreneur from the early age of 12, when he sold garbage bags door-to-door. Today, Mark is the highly successful entrepreneur and investor who founded HDNet, Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions. He has also been an investor in startups, including Mahalo, JungleCents.com, motionloft.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," Mark is recognized as being among the most influential people in both the cable and sports industries.
Mark 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 by introducing original video content, advanced technology and unique entertainment 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, Mark co-founded Broadcast.com, the leading provider of multimedia 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 Mark and partner Martin Woodall in 1983 and later sold to CompuServe.
Currently, Mark is the owner and chairman of AXS.tv. AXS.tv and its sister network, HDNet Movies, are one of the few remaining independently owned and operated TV Networks in the U.S. and the first in the world to be programmed exclusively in high definition. Mark takes personal responsibility for the programming on both networks, creating a unique schedule of creative and original programs. Behind his leadership and that of his co-founder, Philip Garvin, AXS.tv continues to outperform networks owned by much larger corporations and those with much greater distribution.
Mark 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, Mark created the "Ultra VOD" platform for movies, releasing movies to video-on-demand on both cable and satellite up to four weeks prior to their release in theaters.