Pershing Square Capital Management
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Date updated:03-17-2009

Pershing Square Capital Management is a $2.4 billion+ activist hedge fund managed by Bill Ackman. Ackman cut his teeth in the real estate business, working for his father at commercial real estate mortgage brokerage firm Ackman Brothers & Singer. In 1993, he launched Gotham Partners, eventually growing the hedge fund to over $300 million in assets.

Gotham imploded in 2002 amid a series of lawsuits related to a failed merger between one of the firm's holdings (a court had blocked the merger, but a higher court later overturned the ruling) and investigations by the New York State Attorney General and the Securities and Exchange Commission into the fund's trading and research practices. The investigations yielded no findings, but investor redemptions forced Gotham to close its doors.

Ackman re-emerged in late 2003 with Pershing Square, whose original investors included a subsidiary of Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE: LUK). Over the past two-plus years, Ackman has agitated for change at Wendy's International Inc. (NYSE: WEN) and McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD), helping to force the former to spin off its Tim Hortons Inc. (NYSE: THI) donut chain, and the latter to buy back $1 billion in stock.

In November 2006, Ackman made news when he disclosed that Pershing Square had taken a more than 10% stake in Borders Group Inc. (NYSE: BGP), while simultaneously increasing its stake to over 5% in rival Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS). In December 2006, he won a battle against Eddie Lampert over Sears Holdings Corporation's (Nasdaq: SHLD) proposed acquisition of Sears Canada. SHLD was able to increase its stake in Sears Canada to 70%, but a minority shareholder group led by Pershing Square scored court and regulatory victories, prohibiting an actual takeover.

In the publication, Nation's Restaurant News, Ackman discussed his interest in restaurant stocks and McDonalds in particular, a stock where he was an activist:

"How did you become interested in restaurant stocks?

It wasn't restaurant stocks, per se, but I got interested in McDonald's after reading a book called "Behind the Golden Arches" eight or nine years ago. I was interested in the company because I am a customer. It is one of the great brands of the world.

One of the things that jumped out at me from the book was how Harry Sonneborn [the chain's first chief executive] considered McDonald's to be a real-estate company. That line made me think about the company in a different way.
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Do you plan to be a long-term shareholder in McDonald's and Wendy's?

It depends on the price. We buy things when they are discounted, and once they reach the potential of what we think they are worth, we sell. It could take months, or it could take years. That is our business.

I don't think there will be one unhappy shareholder at the time that we sell because the stock price is likely to be meaningfully higher than where it is now. As a general matter, we tend to hold things well in excess of a year."

symbol name last price % change open
  • +
  • TGT
    Target Corp
  • $41.28
  • 0.00%
  • $41.46

37.91% of portfolio (as of 12/31/2008 filing)

People owning TGT also tend to own: CCATDEFNMFREGEKO

TheStreet.com Rating: C What is this?

  • +
  • EMC
    Emc Corp. (ma)
  • $12.85
  • 0.00%
  • $12.21

25.19% of portfolio

People owning EMC also tend to own: AAPLAMTAMZNATHRBEASCTSHGOOG

TheStreet.com Rating: C What is this?

  • +
  • V
    Visa Inc.
  • $66.81
  • 0.00%
  • $66.40

15.36% of portfolio

People owning V also tend to own: DDDHRESLNLYPOTWWEF

TheStreet.com Rating: C- What is this?

  • +
  • WEN
    Wendy's / Arby's
  • $4.14
  • 0.00%
  • $4.37

9.54% of portfolio

People owning WEN also tend to own: BKCCASAHNZLSSMCDOSIPZZI

TheStreet.com Rating: C- What is this?

  • +
  • DPS
    Dr Pepper Snapple
  • $23.21
  • 0.00%
  • $22.38

7.22% of portfolio

People owning DPS also tend to own: AAPLABBAUYBRK-BCCKCHKCSCO

TheStreet.com Rating: C- What is this?

  • +
  • GGP
    General Growth Pp
  • $1.05
  • 0.00%
  • $1.04

New position: 20.1 million shares

People owning GGP also tend to own: AMBAVBBPOBXPCBGDDREQR

TheStreet.com Rating: D What is this?

  • +
  • SHLD
    Sears Holdings Co
  • $67.35
  • +8.93%
  • $61.01

No Analysis added

People owning SHLD also tend to own: AAALLAPCBABACCCAT

TheStreet.com Rating: D+ What is this?

  • +
  • BGP
    Borders Group
  • $3.11
  • 0.00%
  • $3.19

No Analysis added

People owning BGP also tend to own: ARBXBKSCOHCOVDIGADSXDWA

TheStreet.com Rating: D- What is this?

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10/07/2008 13:26 PM CDT Asked by beefandy
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10/05/2007 17:01 PM CDT Asked by DogBones
William Ackman recently disclosed a 5 million share stake in SHLD.

Story here:
http://13dtracker.blogspot.com/search/label/Pershing%20Square%20Capital

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