Mark Cuban has never published an IQ score, and none circulates reliably. He has argued the thing that matters more is effort to learn, which, unlike IQ, anyone can measure in hours.
A childhood with price tags on it
Born 31 July 1958 to a car-upholsterer father and working-class family in suburban Pittsburgh. He wanted expensive basketball shoes; his father told him to earn them. Everything after that was a sale.
Sold boxes of rubbish bags door to door in his neighbourhood.
Traded stamps and coins at shows, buying from dealers and reselling.
During a Pittsburgh newspaper strike he bused in papers from Cleveland and sold them on street corners.
Paid for college by teaching dance and later running a bar in Bloomington.
Education scoreboard
Took night classes at Pitt in his junior year after the school wouldn't let him into its seniors-only economics class, then skipped senior year; his counsellor let him graduate using the college credits.
Started full time at 17. Pitt had no undergraduate business school, so after a year he transferred, picking Indiana, sight unseen, for the cheapest tuition among the top 10 business programmes.
Graduated in 1981. The school's basketball arena now carries his name after a gift to the university.
The hedge that kept the billion
Yahoo paid for Broadcast.com in stock in 1999. Cuban bought a “collar”, options that set a floor under much of his stake. Drag the share price and compare. Simplified, illustrative model: values are indexed to 100 at the deal, not his actual figures.
Inside the band: hedged and unhedged move almost together.
Every business, start to exit
Computer-networking reseller he founded after being fired from a software store. Sold to CompuServe.
Started as AudioNet, streaming college sports over the internet with Todd Wagner. Sold to Yahoo in stock.
Bought majority control; won the 2011 NBA title. Sold his majority stake to the Adelson and Dumont families in 2023, keeping a minority share.
One of the first all-high-definition TV channels; later rebranded AXS TV and sold in 2019.
Film production and distribution with Todd Wagner, including Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures.
Became a regular “shark” on the ABC show, backing hundreds of small companies; left after season 16.
Online pharmacy selling generic drugs at manufacturing cost plus a fixed markup.
Sources
- Cuban, M. (2011). How to Win at the Sport of Business. Diversion Books
- Yahoo! Inc. SEC filings on the Broadcast.com acquisition (1999)
- NBA Board of Governors approval of Mavericks sale (Dec 2023)
- Indiana University Kelley School of Business records
- What's Your IQ editorial review of circulated figures