Person

Bill Ackman

Bill Ackman (link) by Business Insider is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (link)
Nationality:

American

Born:

1966

Occupation:

Investor, Hedge Fund Manager, and Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management

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William “Bill” Ackman is a Democratic political donor, investor, and hedge fund manager. Ackman has shorted stocks betting they would fall in value while pushing negative media stories about those companies. Ackman is also an “activist” investor who has pushed for policy and leadership changes at companies in which he owns stock.

Background

Bill Ackman is CEO and portfolio manager at Pershing Square Capital Management (“Pershing Square”), a hedge fund firm he founded in 2003. 1 Previously, Ackman co-founded and managed the hedge fund firm Gotham Partners Management. 1 He began his career in real estate investment banking at Ackman Brothers and Singer Inc. 1 Ackman has a B.A. from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. 1 In 2022, Forbes estimated Ackman to be worth $2.7 billion. 2

Pershing Square

In 2005, Ackman and Pershing Square purchased a large share of Wendy’s stock and pressured management at the company to spin-off its Tim Horton’s brand. 3 After Wendy’s agreed, Ackman sold his shares, making a large profit. The Wendy’s stock price later fell, 3 leading critics to claim that Ackman was responsible for leaving Wendy’s without the growing Tim Horton’s brand. 3

In 2008, Ackman and Pershing Square purchased a large share of Target Corporation and pressured the company to sell its credit card portfolio. 3

At the end of 2021, Pershing Square’s holdings were valued at $57 billion. 4 Pershing Square has made controversial investments and trades such as a short-sale of Herbalife in 2012. 4 (Short selling is a process by which one borrows shares for a set time to sell them, with the goal of repurchasing the shares to cover the loan at a lower price; short-sellers profit if the stock price of the company falls.) 5 Ackman and Pershing Square shorted about $1 billion of Herbalife stock, claiming the company operated as a pyramid scheme. 6 Ackman hired lobbyists attempting to convince Congress to investigate Herbalife, which resulted in Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the company. 7 After five years and little change in stock price, Ackman’s Pershing Square dropped their short position in Herbalife. 8

In January 2022, Ackman and Pershing Square acquired 3.1 million shares of Netflix valued at $1.1 billion. 9 In April 2022, Ackman and the firm sold all the shares resulting in a $400 million loss in three months. 10

Views

In 2016, Ackman wrote an op-ed supporting Michael Bloomberg (who did not run that year) over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President. 11

In 2017, Ackman got into a heated exchange with Joe Biden at a private dinner. 12 After a comment by Ackman that Biden took to be about his late son, Biden called Ackman an expletive and told him to “just shut the hell up.” 13 Ackman did not donate to Biden’s 2020 presidential election campaign. 14

In March 2020, Ackman called for President Donald Trump to shut down the country due to the coronavirus, stating that without lockdowns, “America will end as we know it.” 15 It is estimated that Pershing Capital made $3.8 billion on trades involving COVID-related market movements. 16

In 2021, Ackman angered some through a series of tweets supporting Kyle Rittenhouse during Rittenhouse’s homicide trial in Wisconsin. 17 Rittenhouse was later found not guilty on all counts. 18

October 7 Attacks against Israel and University Response to Antisemitism

Following attacks against Israel by the terror group Hamas on October 7, 2023, Ackman released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, calling for Harvard University to release the names of students who signed a letter blaming Israel for the attacks. 19 Ackman also criticized former Harvard president Claudia Gay for her congressional testimony in December 2023, which she gave along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) president Sally Kornbluth and former University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) President Liz Magill, over the response to a rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses following the October 7 attacks. 19 20 Ackman later called for Gay’s resignation after several sources, including The Washington Free Beacon and Harvard’s student paper, alleged evidence of plagiarism on several of Gay’s academic papers dating back to the 2000’s. Gay would step down from her position on January 2, 2024, following Magill previously stepping down from her position in December 2023. 19 21

In January 2024, a report by Business Insider claimed that Ackman’s wife, professor Neri Oxman, plagiarized her 2010 MIT dissertation by stealing, “…sentences and whole paragraphs from Wikipedia” 19 as well as improperly quoting from other academic papers. 19 Oxman responded to the report on X, stating, “I regret and apologize for these errors,” 19 and that she did not, “…place the subject language in quotation marks, which would be the proper approach for crediting the work.” 19 Ackman also responded on X by claiming the allegations by Business Insider against Oxman don’t, “…strike me as plagiarism,” 19 and further commented, “I am sure that when Neri wrote her dissertation she thought that there was nothing wrong with using Wikipedia as a dictionary.” 19 He later claimed that academic papers by Ivy League staff should be checked by Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to check for plagiarism. 19

Political Contributions

Since 1998, with few exceptions to select Republicans, Ackman has mainly donated to Democratic election candidates. 14 Ackman has donated more than $600,000 to Democratic campaigns including those of Barack Obama, Al Gore, former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. 14

References

  1. “William A. Ackman.” Pershing Square Foundation. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://pershingsquarefoundation.org/people/william-a-ackman-2/.
  2. “William Ackman.” Forbes. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.forbes.com/profile/william-ackman/?sh=5fcb698298d3.
  3. Serres, Chris. “William Ackman: Targeting Target.” Star Tribune. January 13, 2008. Archived from the original May 29, 2012. Accessed June 28, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20120529164307/http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=13715691
  4. Schultz, Hank. “Herbalife Foe Ackman Swears Off Short Selling Strategy.” Nutra Ingredients. April 5, 2022. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2022/04/05/herbalife-foe-ackman-swears-off-short-selling-strategy#.
  5. “Short Sale.” Cambridge English Dictionary. Accessed June 30, 2022. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/short-sale.
  6. Moyer, Liz. “Five Years After Brawl with Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman Exits Losing Bet Against Herbalife.” CNBC. February 28, 2018. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-now/five-years-after-brawl-with-carl-icahn-bill-ackman-exits-losing-bet-against-herbalife/465-a8f6e5b6-2824-40b5-9239-d339ecaeb235; Schultz, Hank. “Herbalife Foe Ackman Swears Off Short Selling Strategy.” Nutra Ingredients. April 5, 2022. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2022/04/05/herbalife-foe-ackman-swears-off-short-selling-strategy#.
  7. “Ackman Outspent by Herbalife in Lobbying Battle.” CNBC. March 10, 2014. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2014/03/10/ackman-outspent-by-herbalife-in-lobbying-battle.html.
  8. [1] Schultz, Hank. “Herbalife Foe Ackman Swears Off Short Selling Strategy.” Nutra Ingredients. April 5, 2022. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2022/04/05/herbalife-foe-ackman-swears-off-short-selling-strategy#.
  9. Bill Ackman Tweet. www.twitter.com. January 26, 2022. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://twitter.com/BillAckman/status/1486460691519361024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1486460691519361024%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fwilliam-ackman-takes-stake-in-netflix-11643236690; Spangler, Todd. “Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman Sells Entire Netflix Stake, Taking $400 Million Loss.” Variety. April 21, 2022. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/bill-ackman-sells-netflix-stake-loss-1235237715/.
  10. Spangler, Todd. “Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman Sells Entire Netflix Stake, Taking $400 Million Loss.” Variety. April 21, 2022. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/bill-ackman-sells-netflix-stake-loss-1235237715/.
  11. [1] La Roche, Julia. “Billionaire Bill Ackman Wrote an Op-Ed in Support of Bloomberg for President Because ‘America is Burning.’” Business Insider. February 11, 2016. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/ackman-op-ed-bloomberg-for-president-2016-2.
  12. Cullen, Terrence. “Joe Biden Gets into Tense Exchange With billionaire Bill Ackman.” New York Daily News. June 24, 2017. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/joe-biden-tense-exchange-billionaire-bill-ackman-article-1.3274531.
  13. Schwartz, Brian. “Joe Biden’s Beef with Joe Ackman Sparks Heated Exchange and Presidential Chatter.” Fox Business. June 27, 2017. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/joe-bidens-beef-with-bill-ackman-sparks-heated-exchange-and-presidential-chatter.
  14. “Bill Ackman.” Center for Responsive Politics. Accessed June 13, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=William+ackman.
  15. “’Hell is Coming – Bill Ackman Has Dire Warning for Trump, CEOs if Drastic Measures Aren’t Taken Now.” CNBC. March 18, 2020. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/bill-ackman-pleads-to-trump-to-increase-closures-to-save-the-economy-shut-it-down-now.html.
  16. Weil, Dan. “Hedge Funder Ackman Makes $3.8 Billion on Covid Trades.” The Street. February 1, 2022. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.thestreet.com/investing/ackman-3-billion-dollars-covid-trades; Hartmans, Avery. “Billionaire Bill Ackman Calls for Trump to Concede: ‘Think About Your Legacy and What is Best for the Country.” Business Insider. November 9, 2020. Accessed June 8, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-ackman-urges-trump-to-concede-election-2020-11.
  17. Pesce, Nicole Lyn. “Bill Ackman: Kyle Rittenhouse is ‘Telling the Truth’ and ‘Acted in Self-Defense’ in Viral Twitter Feed.” Market Watch. November 12, 2021. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bill-ackman-kyle-rittenhouse-is-telling-the-truth-and-acted-in-self-defense-in-viral-twitter-thread-11636737750.
  18. Hymes, Clare. “Kyle Rittenhouse Found Not Guilty of All Charges in Kenosha Shootings.” CBS News. CBS Interactive, November 20, 2021. https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/kyle-rittenhouse-verdict-acquitted-all-charges/.
  19. Deese, Kaelan. “Who is Bill Ackman? The hedge fund billionaire who has MIT and Business Insider in his sights.” The Washington Examiner, January 7, 2024. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2789165/who-is-bill-ackman-the-hedge-fund-billionaire-who-has-mit-and-business-insider-in-his-sights/
  20. Delouya, Samantha. “After Harvard and Penn president resignations, focus of ire shifts to MIT’s Kornbluth.” CNN Business, January 3, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/03/business/sally-kornbluth-pressure-claudine-gay-resignation/index.html
  21. Egan, Matt. “Harvard President Claudine Gay resigns after plagiarism and campus antisemitism accusations.” CNN Business, January 3, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/02/business/claudine-gay-harvard-president-resigns/index.html
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