Calabasas: Home of the Nation's Largest Landscape Company

Computer billionaire Michael Dell had a pretty big landscaping job at his Austin Texas company. When ValleyCrest did a good job for him three years ago, he bought the company.

Worth an estimated $17 billion, Dell has diversified his portfolio well beyond his own company and tech in general. He owns parts of IHOP, Appblebee’s and Domino’s Pizza and in 2006, bought 51% of ValleyCrest, which has created gardens for huge hotels like the Bellagio to corporate headquarters to a safari park in Abu Dhabi.

The company has been based in the San Fernando Valley for over 60 years and has grown from typical landscaping projects to a company that grows over 12,000 types of trees for customers on an 800-acre ValleyCrest nursery. The company has over 10,000 employees throughout the country.

The company says Dell is starting to put his imprint on the company’s operations, eliminating some wasteful practices and even hiring efficiency experts from Toyota to keep things moving smoothly.