Shark Tank's Mark Cuban Talks Facebook, Tech Investing, Windows Phone 8 on Reddit

The outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, who sold his company Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999 for billions just before the dot-com bust and now stars in the popular television investment show spent Christmas Eve on Reddit's comments board for a revealing round of Ask Me Anything (AMA).

The AMA sessions have become a popular feature on the site, drawing luminaries such astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson, comedian Stephen Colbert, and . Characterized by a intimate and casual back and forth between the subject and the questioners, the AMA's have almost become a rite of passage for some well-known public figures looking to dispel rumors, answer long-standing questions that may have been avoided in the past, and generally present a more human face to the public by temporarily dropping the pretense of celebrity and talking directly to fans.

Cuban's turn on the site was focused on a wide range of topics including his sports business, his recent high profile critique of Facebook, advice on going to business school, and his time as one of the cast on "Shark Tank."

Back in November, Cuban criticized Facebook's recent strategies on his blog, and indicated on his Twitter feed and through interviews that he might be moving the focus of his company's social media efforts away from Facebook. Asked about this apparent move away from a Facebook-centric social media approach, Cuban told AMA readers, "while we continue to use [Facebook] and even invested in a company…that works to optimize Facebook, we have taken the time to explore the new Myspace, work on Tumblr, Pinterest and other options. I think [Facebook] is going to have some challenges going forward. It's going to be interesting to see what happens from a user perspective… I believe the aggregate value of the other options will offer more opportunity for brands than [Facebook] alone."

Another topic that came up is one that has also captured the attention of Silicon Valley venture capitalists in recent months, that is, the notion that a tech bubble has made garnering early stage investment money more difficult for new startups. Cuban said, "There is a HUGE bubble in the Valley for tech startups. The valuations have gotten out of hand. When valuations go up beyond the reality point, the funding goes down. It's almost become like the movie business was 10 years ago. There was so much dumb money coming in and so few actually making money that the suckers finally wised up."

Finally, Cuban addressed the never-ending questions surrounding what gadgets the top executives keep in their tech arsenal. Cuban, a voracious consumer of new tech, has done his due diligence on some of the latest gadgets to hit the market, and his findings may surprise some.

"I have a MacBook Air, but am trying the new Acer with Windows 8," Cuban said. "I really, really like Windows 8 on my phone. I have 2 phones. First is Samsung the second was an iPhone 5. The new Nokia with windows replaced my iPhone 5… It crushes the iPhone 5. Not even close… I love my iPad and my Macbook Air is amazing when it doesn't crash, so I like apple products, but I think as far as phones, both Samsung 3 with Android and the Windows phone kick the iPhone's ass. It's not even close."