Biography
Billionaire Todd Wagner is the cofounder of Broadcast.com and co-owns several entertainment ventures, including 2929 Entertainment, with fellow billionaire Mark Cuban. Wagner and Cuban became instant millionaires when they went public with Broadcast.com in 1998, then billionaires when they sold it to Yahoo in 1999 just before the "dot com bubble" burst. Since then, they have created a number of "vertically integrated" companies: HDNet Films, to create content; Magnolia Pictures, to distribute it; and Landmark Theatres and cable channels HDNet and HDNet Movies, to exhibit it to the public. This group of companies showed off their innovative capabilities in 2006 when they scored a show business first by releasing Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh's film "Bubble" simultaneously in theatres, on cable, and on DVD. Wagner himself has been the driving force behind many of the socially-conscious projects released by these companies, which include the Oscar-nominated Edward R. Murrow biopic "Good Night, and Good Luck," acclaimed documentaries "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and "Capturing the Friedmans," and inspirational spelling-bee film "Akeelah and the Bee."
