Mark Cuban Loves His Mamma.com

Updated from 8:47 a.m. EST

The strange story of Internet search engine Mamma.com(MAMA Quote) got weirder Tuesday when billionaire investor Mark Cuban reported a 6.3% stake in the company via a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Cuban, the excitable owner of the Dallas Mavericks who laid up his grubstake by selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo!(YHOO Quote) in 1999, said in the filing he has 600,000 shares in the $50 million market-cap Mamma.com. He crossed the 5% threshold that requires SEC notification on March 4.

Mamma.com has bounced around like a loose ball since changing its name from Intasys in January and deciding it was no longer a provider of "global wireless Internet-compatible billing and customer care information systems," but rather "the mother of all search engines." The shares tripled to more than $15 in the space of two days early this month, trading north of 65 million shares on March 2 and 3 -- respectable volume for a company that had 6.5 million shares outstanding at the time. ...