Background and career
Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American, businessman, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertainment. From 2012 to 2025, he was one of the "sharks" on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in the suburb of Mt. Lebanon, Cuban was involved in ventures from a young age, from selling garbage bags to later running newspapers during a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette worker's strike. He graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington and embarked on a diverse business career that included founding MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com, both of which he sold at substantial profits, the latter being sold to Yahoo! Inc., making Cuban a billionaire. In 2002, the service was discontinued.
Cuban's investments span various industries, from technology and media to sports and entertainment. He has been a prominent figure in the NBA, known for his involvement with the Mavericks (including their 2011 NBA championship) and disputes with the league's management. In his side ventures, Cuban has been involved in philanthropy, political commentary, and reality television.
Cuban was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31, 1958. His father, Norton Cuban, was an automobile upholsterer. He described his mother, Shirley (née Feldman), as someone with "a different job or different career goal every other week."
Cuban is Jewish. He grew up in Mt. Lebanon, an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh, in a working-class family. His paternal grandfather changed the surname from "Chabenisky" to "Cuban" after his family emigrated from Russian Empire (modern territory of Ukraine) through Ellis Island. His maternal grandfather was a Bessarabian Jewish immigrant and his maternal grandmother was from Lithuania.
How Mark Cuban makes money
As of January 2026, Forbes has estimated his net worth to be US$6 billion. The company grew to more than $30 million in revenue, and in 1990, Cuban sold MicroSolutions to CompuServe—then a subsidiary of H&R Block—for $6 million (over $14.7 million today). He made approximately $2 million after taxes on the deal.
