Bill Ackman Biography
Bill Ackman is a hedge fund manager and billionaire investor from the United States. He is the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, which manages hedge funds.
How old is Bill Ackman? – Age
He is 56 years old as of 11 May 2022. He was born in 1966 in New York, United States. His real name is William Albert Ackman.
Who is Bill Ackman’s Father? – Family – Education
He is the son of Ronnie I. (née Posner) and Lawrence David Ackman, the former chairman of Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group in New York. He is of Jewish Ashkenazi descent. Harvard College awarded him a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in social studies in 1988. “Scaling the Ivy Wall: the Jewish and Asian American Experience in Harvard Admissions,” was his thesis title. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992.
Bill Ackman Wife
Ackman married landscape architect Karen Ann Herskovitz on July 10, 1994, and the couple has three children. The couple announced their divorce on December 22, 2016. In 2018, Ackman proposed to Neri Oxman. Oxman and Ackman married in January 2019 at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, and they welcomed their first child in spring 2019.
Bill Ackman House
Ackman lives on the other side of the museum in the opulent Beresford apartment building, where he and his wife first saw Friday’s pink penthouse. It is not Ackman’s most expensive asset. In 2015, he paid $91.5 million for the penthouse of One57, a 1,005-foot skyscraper, as a “fun investment.” He entertains his business and celebrity friends at his apartment on the 75th and 76th floors on occasion.
Bill Ackman Gotham Partners
Ackman and fellow Harvard graduate David P. Berkowitz founded the investment firm Gotham Partners in 1992. A feud erupted in 2003 between Ackman and Carl Icahn over a deal involving Hallwood Realty. They agreed to a “shmuck insurance” arrangement in which Icahn and Ackman would split the proceeds if Icahn sold the shares within three years and made a profit of 10% or more.
What is Bill Ackman’s Fund?
Ackman and fellow Harvard graduate David P. Berkowitz founded the investment firm Gotham Partners in 1992. The company made a few small investments in public companies. Ackman teamed up with the insurance and real estate firm Leucadia National to bid on Rockefeller Center in 1995. Although they did not win the contract, the bid sparked investor interest in Gotham: three years later, Gotham had $500 million in assets under management (AUM). By 2002, Gotham was embroiled in litigation with a number of external shareholders who also had a stake in the companies in which it had invested. In 2010, Ackman stated that he would finance a $900 million buyout of Barnes & Noble. Pershing Square’s investment in Valeant Pharmaceuticals resulted in a $500 million loss for the fund’s investors.
After Pershing Square delivered $4.5 billion in net gains for investors in 2014, LCH Investments named Ackman one of the world’s top 20 hedge fund managers in January 2015. On April 27, 2016, Ackman testified before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, along with Valeant’s outgoing CEO, J. Michael Pearson, and former interim CEO, Howard Schiller. The committee was concerned about the company’s contentious business model and pricing practices.
Bill Ackman’s Net Worth
His investment strategy qualifies him as an activist investor. Forbes estimated Ackman’s net worth to be $2.8 billion in 2022.
How much did Bill Ackman lose on Netflix? – Netflix
Pershing Square acquired a $1.1 billion stake in Netflix in January 2022, according to Ackman. Netflix stock had just dropped 30% following a disappointing subscriber growth forecast for Q1 2022. Ackman praised Netflix’s “best-in-class management team” in a letter to investors, saying he has long admired Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and the “remarkable company he and his team have built.” In April, Netflix stock fell 35%, prompting Ackman to sell his entire stake in the company.
Bill Ackman Herbalife
In December 2012, Ackman published a research report calling Herbalife’s multi-level marketing business model a pyramid scheme. Ackman revealed that his hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, sold short the company’s shares directly beginning in May 2012, causing the stock price of Herbalife to fall. Herbalife announced in January 2013 that 73% of its distributors never intended to make money by reselling the product. Instead, they desired to purchase discounted products for personal use. Instead of “distributors,” the company began referring to discount buyers as “members.” A few months later, billionaire investor Carl Icahn publicly criticized Ackman’s remarks on national television. The New York Times reported in March 2014 that Ackman had used deception to undermine public trust in Herbalife.
These strategies included putting pressure on state and federal regulators to investigate the company, paying people to travel to and participate in anti-company rallies, and increasing its spending on nonprofit Latino organizations. By December 2, 2014, stock prices had dropped nearly 50% to $42.08 from their high of $83.48 on January 8, 2014. On January 25, 2013, Ackman’s stance on Herbalife prompted a nearly half-hour live television debate with Carl Icahn on CNBC. Ackman admitted on Bloomberg Television on November 22, 2013, that Pershing Square’s open short position was “$400 million to $500 million” in the red. On February 28, 2018, Ackman exited his nearly billion-dollar bet against herbalife as the company’s stock price continued to rise.