3 ms·
It's an opportunistic play that didn't find an opportunity. Pretty reasonable to return the money. Ackman still has a reputation to protect, so he needed to lo
by lordnacho 4y ago
It's an opportunistic play that didn't find an opportunity. Pretty reasonable to return the money.
Ackman still has a reputation to protect, so he needed to look for some sort of reasonable deal with good flippability (that's the Latin term). That's gone now with all the air deflating from the SPAC market. A SPAC play would not likely be the kind of thing he'd buy and hold for ages, especially as everyone knows there's some serious adverse selection going on concerning which firms will go for a SPAC.
There's a fair chance his sales guys are able to simply move the investors over into his main fund or some similar vehicle, so it's not actually such a big deal for him financially. Plus you get kudos for not doing something that might be seen as reckless or profiteering.
- mikebos 4y agoI have a somewhat different opinion. He found a target, failed to meet SEC regulations with the negotiated deal and took the deal for his main fund. After that he basically threw the towel on the spac. This happened approx a year ago. Not finding a good deal is understandable, finding a deal and messing it up not so much. With his army of lawyers this looks from the outside more an deliberate strategy then a honest mistake. Edit: link https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-19/pershing-square-decides-not-to-proceed-with-universal-music-deal https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-19/pershing-...