Wayne Huizenga, Who Built His Fortune From Trash, Dies At 80

FILE- This Sept. 16, 2007, file photo shows H. Wayne Huizenga on the sidelines before a football game between the Miami Dolphins and the Dallas Cowboys at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. Huizenga, a college dropout who built a business empire that included Blockbuster Entertainment, AutoNation and three professional sports franchises, has died. Valerie Hinkell, a longtime assistant to Huizenga, said Friday that he died Thursday night, March 22, 2018, at his South Florida home. He was 80. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

MIAMI (AP) — H. Wayne Huizenga, a college dropout who built a business empire that included Blockbuster Entertainment, AutoNation and three professional sports franchises, has died. He was 80.

Huizenga (HY’-zing-ah) died Thursday night at his home, said Valerie Hinkell, a longtime assistant. The cause was cancer, said Bob Henninger, executive vice president of Huizenga Holdings.

Starting with a single garbage truck in 1968, Huzienga built Waste Management Inc. into a Fortune 500 company. He purchased independent sanitation engineering companies, and by the time he took the company public in 1972, he had completed the acquisition of 133 small-time haulers. By 1983, Waste Management was the largest waste disposal company in the United States. READ MORE>

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