ML-Implode News - Bill Ackman gives up Herbalife fight, ending five-year saga

Ackman had accused Herbalife of being an illegal operation that relied on an army of outside distributors to recruit members with get-rich-quick schemes. He kicked off the campaign with a $1-billion bet against the company in 2012 and spent millions to investigate the business. He once delivered an emotional, nearly four-hour anti-Herbalife presentation that backfired -- lifting the shares 25% that day.
But the crusade had its successes. Ackman's complaints triggered an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2014, and Herbalife ultimately reached a $200-million settlement with the agency. Under the agreement, the company had to rein in its business practices -- a move that Ackman said would cripple it. In the end, the reckoning never came.

The short position also put Ackman at odds with another billionaire investor, Carl Icahn, who became the company's biggest holder. Icahn has defended Herbalife's multilevel-marketing model and publicly assailed Ackman -- on stages, television, in documentaries and online -- since an initial CNBC phone-in fight between the two billionaires.

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Bill Ackman gives up Herbalife fight, ending five-year saga