News flash: Carl Icahn loves Bill Ackman.
“I turned my thinking on him. Any guy who makes me a quarter of a billion dollars, I like,” the investor said of his arch-nemesis, referring to the gains he claims he’s made on Herbalife this year since he began investing, opposite Ackman’s famous $1 billion short.
The two billionaire activists had sparred live on CNBC for a half-hour earlier this year and are on opposite sides of the Herbalife battle.
But it was just Icahn for Round 2 of their battle at CNBC and Institutional Investor’s Delivering Alpha conference, where he spent about 15 minutes pummeling Ackman.
Ackman told CNBC he wanted to be there but could not because he was at a Canadian Pacific Railways board meeting, adding: “I have a railroad to run.”
On hearing that, Icahn retorted, “If he’s running the railroad, I wouldn’t want to be on it.”
Icahn, without his foe, launched uninterrupted a series of crowd-pleasing one-liners, more scathing sarcasm than serious investment critiques. He even did a hilarious impression of a British lawyer.
Sporting a beard and looking a little wan, the 77-year-old didn’t stop at Ackman either, saving some venom for PC maker Dell, which he said had the worst board he had ever seen.
Herbalife still provided the best lines.
It may not be the “mother of all short squeezes,” as Icahn once promised, but it is the “daughter of all short squeezes,” he said.
But when it came to whether or not he was planning a takeover of Herbalife — as so many investors have been hoping — Icahn stayed mum. “I am not going to say where Herbalife is going,” he said.