The rehabilitation of Bill Ackman has begun.
The same day he resigned from the JCPenney board after an ugly public spat, the billionaire activist investor went on “Charlie Rose” in an image-buffing move.
The interview was his first TV appearance since early January, when he was talking up his big bet against Herbalife, which he has called a pyramid scheme.
Since then, things have gone downhill in two of Ackman¹s most high-profile positions: his $1 billion Herbalife short and his 18 percent stake in troubled retailer JCPenney.
In the interview, Ackman defended his decision to take his feud with the retailer public, a move that led to his decision to step down from the board yesterday.
“I’ve focused the owners of the business and, frankly, the management and the board on these very, very important issues,” he said.
Ackman admitted he was worried that he was getting — as Rose put it — “an image that¹s not necessarily helpful.” He then quickly reminded the TV host that 23 out of 26 of his investments in the past 10 years had been “home runs.”
As for Herbalife, Ackman called it “a moral outrage” and said he was doing ³millions of dollars worth of research² for the government, including the SEC, the FTC and several attorneys general.
Ackman even acknowledged that if he weren’t an investor, he might go into government himself. “I think about government, if I could effectuate change the same way I could effectuate change in the private sector.”