Herbalife shares have been halted on news regarding Carl Icahn. In a press release, Icahn announced that he can appoint two directors to Herbalife’s board and can purchase 25 percent of the company.
Carl Icahn just made a surprise appearance on Bloomberg TV to discuss the latest Herbalife move. He said that he wants to buy more stock but would not get into specifics. Icahn said that he plans to bring the two Herbalife directors from his own company.
Icahn said he does not need to convince short sellers about the company. However, Icahn devoted a decent chunk of the interview to critize Ackman. Icahn said that he has consulted with people who have been at the FTC and the company is absolutely not a pyramid scheme as Ackman has claimed.
Icahn says he did a “lot of work on the company” and disagrees with Ackman’s criticism. He says that he does not understand what Ackman is saying. He does not “comprehend” what Ackman is doing and why he put out a 300 page report.
However, Icahn says that he does not care why Ackman did it. Icahn says that Ackman is exposing his shareholders to risk even if Ackman has promised to give the proceeds to charity.
Alluding to JC Penny, Icahn says that Ackman has made many big mistakes lately.
Icahn believes that Ackman gave him an opportunity to buy the company at an extremely cheap price. He thinks that Herbalife has a great opportunity especially overseas and thinks it is a great product.
By the end of the interview shares resumed trading and are up 5.80 percent at the time of this writing on the news regarding Icahn.
Ackman has not responded but we expect a comment shortly from the CEO of Pershing Square.
Bloomberg has just posted the video of the Icahn interview. We have embedded the full video interview below:
