Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has exited its Herbalife bet five years after his on-air verbal brawl with Carl Icahn on CBNC.
Ackman told CNBC’s Scott Wapner on Wednesday in a phone call that he had unwound the position. Herbalife shares jumped 9 percent to an all time high on Wednesday.
The activist investor had placed a massive bet against the nutritional supplement maker he accused of running a pyramid scheme. He expected the shares to fall to zero, enabling him to profit on his short sale of the stock.
But the bet proved disastrous. Last November, after Herbalife shares had climbed 51 percent for the year, he announced he had closed out the short position he had in the shares and converted it into a bet using put options.
The Icahn-Ackman fight happened on Jan. 25, 2013, while Ackman was being interviewed by telephone by Wapner. Ackman was responding to attacks by Icahn the previous day over Ackman’s claims that Herbalife was “a well-managed pyramid scheme.”
Icahn called in to the show, saying “Ackman is a liar” and that he had “one of the worst reputations on Wall Street.”
“I’ve really about had it with this guy,” Icahn said. “He’s like the crybaby in the
Tag Archive for Bill Ackman
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Breaking News: Herbalife Attacks Bill Ackman With Full Power
by Ted Nuyten • • 0 Comments
According to a Herbalife press release:
Herbalife Today Posts First in a New Series of Videos on TheRealBillAckman.com
Shows How Bill Ackman’s Hubris Drives Him To Make Unsound Decisions Costing His Investors Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars
Global nutrition company Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) today announced the debut of its latest series of videos that showcase observations by the media and other thought leaders about the motives, failed investment strategies and questionable tactics of Bill Ackman. Observers have questioned his scruples and ethics, arguing that he has put his personal agenda ahead of the interests of his investors.
The premier video in the series, “Frequently Wrong, Always in Denial” posted today on TheRealBillAckman.com, illustrates Ackman’s inability to admit his many investment mistakes. Quoted in Vanity Fair, one of Ackman’s hedge fund contemporaries stated “There is a saying
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Herbalife Chairman Speaks Out Against Activist Investing
by Ramya Chandrasekaran • • 0 Comments
Michael O. Johnson, chairman and CEO of Herbalife, wrote this column in the Gazette about the rise of a new version activist investing, targeting companies such as Herbalife.
About 220 years ago, two dozen stockbrokers and merchants sat beneath a buttonwood tree on Wall Street and signed the famous Buttonwood Agreement forming the New York Stock and Exchange Board. This exchange, and the others that followed, ushered in a new era of free market capitalism and changed world history.
Through history, we have occasionally seen folks try to take advantage of the freedom this marketplace provides. Thankfully, the system of checks and balances has, for the most part, successfully identified and restrained these excesses to help insulate and safeguard the market.
Yet today, in the never-ending pursuit of an edge, some investors are using
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Herbalife Launches Second Attack On Bill Ackman
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Fox Business Reports: Herbalife, (HLF) the embattled nutritional supplements company, has released its second attack-video against its chief nemesis, Bill Ackman, accusing the hedge fund billionaire of enriching himself through activist campaigns that lead to massive layoffs at his targeted companies, the Fox Business Network has learned.
“Billionaire Bill Ackman would like us to believe his corporate raiding has a higher purpose than mere wealth accumulation but for the tens of thousands of employees who lost their jobs because of his meddling he is probably more prince of darkness than white knight,” the video states.
The video is the second to be featured on the firm’s recently launched website, which also contains various stories about the short-seller’s attacks against the company.
An Herbalife spokesman had no comment; neither Ackman nor a spokeswoman for his Pershing Square hedge
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Herbalife Beating Wall Street Odds In 2nd Quarter
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
USA Today reports: Shares of Herbalife shot up more than 7% in late trading Wednesday after the energy drink company posted better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter.
Herbalife, which has been waging an ugly battle with billionaire Bill Ackman over the legitimacy of its business, posted profits of $1.24 a share on $1.16 billion in sales.
Sales were down 11% from a year earlier due to “unfavorable” currency exchange rates in certain markets, the company said. Still, Herbalife shares shot up close to 8% in after-hours trading because Wall Street analysts had expected the company to post earnings of $1.11 a share on revenue of $1.14 billion.
Ackman, founder of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, placed a $1 billion bet on the stock’s decline in 2012 on the theory that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme — an allegation the company denies.
Ackman shorted the stock at around $47 a share and came close to
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Herbalife Retaliates With A Website Attacking Bill Ackman
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Herbalife Ltd. went on the attack against nemesis Bill Ackman on Monday, debuting a website that paints the billionaire hedge fund manager as an irresponsible opportunist.
Therealbillackman.com includes media reports about legal probes into his anti-Herbalife campaign as well as videos detailing Ackman’s investment failures. The counterpunch comes more than two years after Ackman started a site called factsaboutherbalife.com to aid his campaign accusing Herbalife of running an illegal pyramid scheme.
“When Bill Ackman’s wrong, he’s really wrong,” one video caption on Herbalife’s website reads. Another asks, “Really, Bill?”
Herbalife’s new site is its most public response yet after plenty of maneuvering behind the scenes. The company overhauled its lobbying and public-relations staffs and hired outside help to bolster its image amid federal and state probes into its business practices. The company has repeatedly denied Ackman’s allegations.
Ackman didn’t
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Herbalife Reports Quarterly Revenue At $1.11 Billion – Beating Wall Streets Expectations
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Nathan Vardi at Forbes reports:
Herbalife , the controversial nutritional supplements seller, delivered a blow to its adversaries on Tuesday by reporting first-quarter earnings that suggested its business model was not as broken as some had predicted.
Herbalife reported that in the first three months of 2015 it earned $1.29 per share on an adjusted basis, beating consensus estimates on Wall Street that had called for the company to earn $1.01 per share, the bottom of the company’s first quarter earnings guidance of $1.00 to $1.10 per share.
In addition to the earnings beat, the company raised its earnings per share guidance for 2015 to a range of $4.30 to $4.60 per share. The previous range Herbalife had given investors was $4.10 to $4.50 per share. Herbalife posted revenue of $1.11 billion in the first quarter of 2015,
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Herbalife Contacted By Law Enforcement Agencies
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
Federal law enforcement agencies recently contacted several Herbalife members for information about their own business practices, CNBC has learned.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the inquiries came last week and focused on the activities of 10 or so mostly top Herbalife members.
It’s unclear exactly what law enforcement asked for, or the identities of the specific members in question.
Sources say the company has offered the members assistance in obtaining legal counsel though it’s unclear how many have sought representation.
Separately, Herbalife has also received inquiries recently about irregular trading in its stock as part of a broader investigation into possible market manipulation.
When asked for a comment on Sunday evening Herbalife spokesman Alan Hoffman provided CNBC the following statement:
“Bill Ackman has been engaged in a nearly three-year effort to drive down Herbalife’s stock in
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Herbalife Unveils Massive Public Relations Blitz In Response To Critics
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
LA Times reports: Amid relentless attacks on its business model, Los Angeles nutritional products company Herbalife Ltd. is firing back at its critics with its first Southern California television advertisements in more than a decade.
With a big rally in downtown Los Angeles, the company kicked off a massive public relations campaign that portrays its products as effective in helping users lose weight and stay fit.
Herbalife has traditionally shied away from expensive television advertising, instead relying on its independent salespeople to spread the word about its weight-loss and nutrition products through personal contacts. It also promotes the company through a variety of sponsorships, including the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.
But the company decided to change its strategy as activist investor Bill Ackman continued his two-year, high-profile attack on the company’s business practices.
Ackman has
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Tables Turn: The FBI Is Investigating Bill Ackman And His Campaign Against Herbalife
by Tina Williams • • 0 Comments
The FBI and federal prosecutors are interviewing people related to hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman for potential Herbalife stock manipulation, reports The Wall Street Journal.
They’ve asked for documents related to the stock. Neither Ackman nor his hedge fund, Pershing Square, have been served with a subpoena.
Ackman has been publicly shorting Herbalife since December 2012. He has said that the multilevel-marketing nutrition firm is a pyramid scheme and that his hedge fund, Pershing Square, is shorting its stock to zero.
Here’s The Journal on exactly what investigators are trying to figure out in this case:
Prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and New York field office of the FBI have conducted interviews and sent document requests in recent months in connection with the investigation, which is looking into whether people, including some hired by Mr. Ackman,