Rather than attending high school for his senior year, Cuban enrolled as a full time student at the University of Pittsburgh. After one year at the University of Pittsburgh, he transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree inbusiness administration.
After the sale, Cuban diversified his wealth to avoid exposure to a market crash.As of 2011, Cuban is No.459 on Forbes' "World's Richest People" list, with a net worth of $2.5 billion. The Guinness Book of Records credits Cuban with the "largest single e-commerce transaction," after paying $40 million for his Gulfstream V jet in October 1999.
Cuban continues to work with Wagner in another venture, 2929 Entertainment, which provides vertically integrated production and distribution of films and video.
On September 24, 2003, the firm purchased Landmark Theatres, a chain of 58 arthouse movie theaters. The company is also responsible for the updated version of the TV show Star Search, which was broadcast on CBS. 2929 Entertainment released Bubble, a movie directed by Steven Soderbergh, in theaters and on DVD on the same day in January 2006 as asimultaneous release.
Cuban was featured on the cover of the November 2003 premiere issue of Best magazine announcing the arrival of High Definition Television. Cuban also was co-founder (with Philip Garvin) of HDNet, the first high-definition satellite television network.
In February 2004, Cuban announced that he would be working with ABC television to produce a reality television series, The Benefactor. The premise of the six-episode series involved 16 contestants vying to win $1 million by participating in various contests, with their performances being judged by Cuban. It premiered on September 13, 2004 but due to poor ratings was canceled before the full season aired.
Cuban financially supported Grokster in the Supreme Court case, MGM v. Grokster. He is also a partner in Synergy Sports Technology, a web based basketball scouting and video delivery tool, used by many NBA teams.
He has also spearheaded ventures in the social software and Distributed Networking industries. He's an owner of IceRocket, a search engine which scours the blogosphere for content. Cuban was also a partner in RedSwoosh[—a company which uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver rich media, including video and software to a user's PC, later acquired by Akamai. He was also an investor in Weblogs, Inc. which was acquired by AOL.
In 2005, Cuban invested in Brondell Inc., a San Francisco startup making a high-tech toilet seat called a Swash that works like a bidet but mounts on a standard toilet. "People tend to approach technology the same way, whether it's in front of them, or behind them," Cuban joked. He also invested in Goowy Media Inc., a San Diego internet software startup. In April 2006, Sirius Satellite Radio announced that Cuban would host his own weekly radio talk show, Mark Cuban's Radio Maverick. However, the show has not materialized.In July 2006, Cuban financed Sharesleuth.com, a web site created by former St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigative reporter Christopher Carey to uncover fraud and misinformation in publicly traded companies. Experimenting with a new business model for making online journalism financially viable, Cuban disclosed that he would take positions in the shares of companies mentioned in Sharesleuth.com in advance of publication. Business and legal analysts questioned the appropriateness of shorting a stock prior to making public pronouncements which are likely to result in losses in that stock's value. Cuban insisted that the practice is legal in view of full disclosure.In April 2007, Cuban partnered with Mascot Books to publish his first children's book, Let's Go, Mavs!. In November 2011, he wrote a 30,000-word e-book, "How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It," which he described as "a way to get motivated."In October 2008, Cuban started Bailoutsleuth.com as a grassroots, online portal for oversight over the US government's $700 billion dollar "bailout" of financial institutions. In April 2011, Cuban placed Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures up for sale, but he added that he wouldn't sell the companies unless the offer was "very, very compelling."
Cuban is an admirer of author/philosopher Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. About Rand's novel The Fountainhead, he said: "[It] was incredibly motivating to me. It encouraged me to think as an individual, take risks to reach my goals, and responsibility for my successes and failures. I loved it." His political views lean towards libertarianism. He held a position on the centrist Unity08 political organization's advisory council. While learning towards libertarianism, Cuban posted an entry on his blog claiming paying more taxes to be the most patriotic thing someone can do.Cuban has donated $7,000 to political campaigns, $6,000 going to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. $1,000 went to Democratic California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.On February 8, 2008, Cuban announced his endorsement for Michael Bloomberg for President in the 2008 presidential election on his blog, concluding a post lamenting the current state of U.S. politics: "Are you listening Mayor Bloomberg? For less than the cost of opening a tent pole movie, you can change the status quo."
On February 9, 2009, Cuban announced his own "stimulus plan", involving what he called "an open source exchange of ideas." His plan entails individuals posting ideas that fit certain criteria (breaking even within 60 days, profitability within 90 days, no advertising, certain banking controls for Cuban) in the hopes that either Cuban will fund them, or other individuals will take up the ideas thereby stimulating the economy.
