Online video skeptic Mark Cuban invests in Web video company Revision3

Mark Cuban last year took part in a “small round” of financing for Revision3, the Web video studio. The round is only now being disclosed, though amounts were not given.

AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka characterized Cuban’s participation as hypocritical, given Cuban’s repeated slagging of the notion that the Internet will compete with cable as a distribution network. But Cuban has never said video won’t work on the Web –- that would be insane, since video already works on the Web. His more nuanced argument is that the Internet won’t threaten cable’s distribution hegemony.

Cuban told Kafka that he simply paid out some undisclosed amount of cash to get a first look at Revision3’s shows as he shops around for content for his HDNet cable network. The investment was “relatively immaterial” (whatever that means) to Revision3, Jim Louderback, Revision3’s CEO, told Kafka.

Meanwhile, Louderback told Kafka that Revision3, best known for its show Diggnation, is “EBITDA-profitable,” which is finance-speak often used when a company is not profitable under the strictest accounting measures. But he said revenues grew by 80 percent last year.

Update: Louderback says in the comments below: “We were, in fact, both EBITDA and Net Income profitable in the 4th quarter of 2010 … and cash flow positive in December too.”