A billionaire revenge story 10 years in the making

Before he was known for crying on television for saying hell is coming or even endorsing then retracting his quasi-endorsement of right-wing firebrand and presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, Bill pre-spacman Ackman (the spac shut down and returned capital to investors) battled corporate raider Carl Icahn over the pinnacle of pyramidic nutrition, Herbalife.

Ackman, the smaller billionaire took a billion+ short position on Herbalife while Icahn upped his stake to 26%. The stock melted up and Ackman was forced to close the position at a major loss, showing even the best investors choose emotions over the optimal decision (not dissimilar to dumping netflix at the low).

Emotions erupted when Icahn called into CNBC while Ackman was interviewing.

Icahn: "I've about had it with this guy. He's like the crybaby in the schoolyard."

Ackman: "Carl, you think I want to invest with you?"

Icahn: "I wouldn't invest with you if you were the last man on Earth!"

Ackman: "This is not an honest guy, and this is not a guy who keeps his word. This is a guy who takes advantage of little people."

Icahn: "I appreciate, Bill, that you called me a great investor. I thank you for that. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for you."

[ investopedia ]

The billionaire brawl ended in 2014 when they “buried the hatchet” but as all good feuds do, it has resurfaced today thanks to Hindenberg Research.

You may know Hidenberg from short-seller reports on Block ($SQ), Adani Group, Nikola and Clover health. Taking on Jack Dorsey, Chamath’s spac, the fake truck company and an indian ponzi scheme but stepping up to Carl Icahn is similar to backyard bayou brawling with Kimbo to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. You better come correct or don’t come at all.

It appears… they’re onto something as Icahn Enterprises L.P. $IEP sank 20% yesterday before bouncing a bit until it found another cliff to dive off of today.

Hidenberg’s argument:

Investments in funds managed by Icahn and controlling stakes in businesses in the energy, automotive, food and other sectors, was over-leveraged and traded at an extreme premium to its net asset value.

Hindenburg also questioned how the company valued some of its investments.

[ bloomberg ]

We have to think after a long career raiding wall street, maybe there’s a few Ackman’s out there who were pissed off at one point in time ready to take a shot at Carl before he’s taken out by father time.

Bill who’s known to have a minor case of the twitter fingers tweeted this and hasn’t pressed send on the bird app again.

We wonder how many times he worked through the phrase “karmic quality”. There’s something about sticking it to your enemies while pretending to take the high road. Bravo Bill.

As in all such things, it is he who gets the last laugh wins.

recommended reading: When The Wolves Bite

Other news:

The PC market is dead: $AMD can’t pivot to AI fast enough as the pc market for businesses and gaming enthusiasts has all but collapsed, experiencing its worst performance in years. Blame interest rates, blame Obama, we blame the lack of anything AAA games worth playing. The stock is down 8.35% today while cross-town rival $NVDA has a modest decline of 1.15%. [ yahoo ]

Fedsday: the market is waiting to see what Jerome will say regarding future interest rate hikes. Are we pausing after today? Is 25bps again in consideration for June and they’ll wait to decide as the totality finality of employment and inflation data that is regularly revised up and revised down comes in? He’ll probably say we’re staying the course to 2%, the financial system is safe and we’ll look it at from meeting to meeting. A whole lot of nothing that will pump the market at least 75bps by the end. But we followed the plan mentioned yesterday buying calls at the close and selling them at the open. Thanks for lunch Jerome.

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