Bill Ackman and Pershing Square Keep Up Fight Against Herbalife

Companies and Brands

Published: January 8, 2013 4:30 pm

Last Updated: January 9, 2013 6:16 am

Bill Ackman may have seen Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) rise more than handily after the initial tank after his short sale position was disclosed, but his Pershing Square is not letting up on his short-selling campaign against what he thinks is a pyramid scheme. At the Facts About Herbalife, the landing page even states:

“[T]he organization is deemed a pyramid scheme if the participants obtain their monetary benefits primarily from recruitment rather than the sale of goods and services to consumers”
— Dr. Peter J. Vander Nat, senior economist at the FTC, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Vol 21-1, 139-151, (2002)

Today the company has issued its 13-page Executive Summary of the Ira Sohn Presentation. The summary is titled “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” The summary says Herbalife is a pyramid scheme as its distributors earn more than ten-times as much from recruiting as they do selling their overpriced products to bona fide retail customers. The rest of the summary is here.

Herbalife shares closed up almost 5% in Tuesday trading and the 52-week trading range is $24.24 to $73.00. This stock closed out 2012 at $32.94, but shares were around $42.50 on December 18 (a day before the short selling position was disclosed) and the stock hit its yearly low of $24.24 on December 24.

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