Digital Business Entrepreneur biography
Mark Cuban
A software entrepreneur who moved into media, sports and prescription-drug pricing.
Photo: The White House · Public domain · Cropped for display
Software and internet broadcasting
Mark Cuban’s early business career included MicroSolutions, a computer consulting and systems business. He later helped build the internet broadcasting company that became Broadcast.com with Todd Wagner. In a PBS interview, Cuban connects that venture to their wish to listen to Hoosiers basketball while living away from Indiana.
Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com in 1999. The transaction made Cuban a prominent figure from the first major era of commercial internet companies. His later portfolio reached well beyond software, but these earlier ventures explain the starting point: identifying practical uses for computing and the internet, developing a business around them and eventually selling it to another company.
A long chapter with the Mavericks
Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks in 2000. In his PBS interview, he describes being a season-ticket holder and deciding that he wanted to improve the experience around the team. Sports ownership placed him in a different industry from computing and internet broadcasting, while making him visible to a considerably broader public.
The NBA Board of Governors approved the sale of a controlling interest in the Mavericks to the Adelson and Dumont families on December 27, 2023. The league announcement designated Patrick Dumont as the team’s governor. This matters when describing Cuban today: his earlier ownership is a major part of his biography, while the controlling-interest sale changed the team’s ownership structure. The history should not be presented as proof that he still owns or directs the franchise in the same way.
A new focus on prescription drugs
Cuban is a co-founder of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company with physician Alex Oshmyansky. The company’s stated model makes the components of prescription-drug pricing visible. Its company website describes a cost-plus approach based on acquisition costs and a defined markup. The business presents price transparency as an operating principle, connecting its customer proposition to the way it obtains and sells medication.
In a WIRED conversation, Cuban discusses the reasons for his involvement in the company and the existing prescription-drug market. This chapter extends his work from investing into a particular operating business. Across his career, the industries change substantially; the consistent pattern is his involvement in businesses that alter how customers obtain or pay for a service.
A few turning points
Career milestones
The evidence behind the account
Sources & further reading
The linked source material was checked on October 13, 2026. Roles and business relationships may change. Source numbers refer to the sections above.
- Indiana UniversityMark Cuban — University Honors and Awards
- NBANBA Board of Governors approves sale of Mavericks
- Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug CompanyMark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company — company information
- WIREDBattling Big Pharma: A Conversation with Mark Cuban
- PBSThe David Rubenstein Show: Mark Cuban — interview transcript
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