Three work-related anecdotes tied in with Mr. Huizenga:
An older co-worker, generally known as prudent and conservative with his money, was friendly with Huizenga's right-hand man in the late '80s and got in very early on Blockbuster stock, buying a large block of shares at a low price. He sold a few years later for a sizable profit after the stock took off. I believe that windfall helped put his daughters through college.
In the mid-'90s, Huizenga was angered by the Sun-Sentinel's coverage of his enterprises and the word was he was thinking of making an offer for the paper, which was a cash cow and still growing like crazy. He backed off when he found out (a) the asking price would be roughly equivalent to his net worth, which was around $1.5 billion at the time, and (b) TribCo wasn't interested in selling, anyway.
And a few years after that, the Sun-Sentinel's 60-plus-year-old business columnist became quite aggressive and critical in his coverage of Huizenga, writing a series of hard-hitting columns. According to two sources of mine who were in position to know what happened, Huizenga finally had enough and reacted by making two phone calls -- one to the paper's reader-friendly editor, another to its business community-friendly publisher. Wasn't long before the columnist was demoted and assigned to write business briefs and help edit biz wire copy. He quit, sued for age discrimination -- and lost.
An older co-worker, generally known as prudent and conservative with his money, was friendly with Huizenga's right-hand man in the late '80s and got in very early on Blockbuster stock, buying a large block of shares at a low price. He sold a few years later for a sizable profit after the stock took off. I believe that windfall helped put his daughters through college.
In the mid-'90s, Huizenga was angered by the Sun-Sentinel's coverage of his enterprises and the word was he was thinking of making an offer for the paper, which was a cash cow and still growing like crazy. He backed off when he found out (a) the asking price would be roughly equivalent to his net worth, which was around $1.5 billion at the time, and (b) TribCo wasn't interested in selling, anyway.
And a few years after that, the Sun-Sentinel's 60-plus-year-old business columnist became quite aggressive and critical in his coverage of Huizenga, writing a series of hard-hitting columns. According to two sources of mine who were in position to know what happened, Huizenga finally had enough and reacted by making two phone calls -- one to the paper's reader-friendly editor, another to its business community-friendly publisher. Wasn't long before the columnist was demoted and assigned to write business briefs and help edit biz wire copy. He quit, sued for age discrimination -- and lost.
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