Bill Ackman, Pershing Square Capital Management CEO, speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference in NYC on Sept. 28th, 2023.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman would “absolutely” do a deal with X, the social platform previously known as Twitter, with his newly approved investment vehicle, Ackman told The Wall Street Journal in a story published on Sunday.
On Friday, Ackman announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved his new financing vehicle, which he is calling a SPARC — a special purpose acquisition rights company. In a SPARC, investors will know what company the financing vehicle would be used to merge with before they have to pledge their investments.
“If your large private growth company wants to go public without the risks and expenses of a typical IPO, with Pershing Square as your anchor shareholder, please call me,” Ackman said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We promise a quick yes or no.”
Ackman told the Journal that he would “absolutely” consider using his newly formed SPARC to invest in X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.
A spokesperson from Pershing Square Capital Management, Ackman’s investment firm, told CNBC the company had nothing further to add other than what was in the Journal story.
Investors interested in the SPARC were directed to follow Bill Ackman’s account on X for more information, according to the press release announcing the regulatory approval of the investment vehicle.
Ackman posts regularly on a wide variety of topics on X, including his support for U.S. presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., his assertion that he married the “female version of Elon Musk.”
While Ackman uses X regularly and told the Journal he would embrace using his newly formed investment vehicle to merge with X, the implications of being a public company make it unlikely that X would actually pursue the deal, according to Alan D. Jagolinzer, a professor of financial accounting at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
“Taking X public would expose X to financial and governance regulatory transparency and accountability; which is why I’m skeptical it’ll happen,” Jagolinzer said in a post on X.
Read the full story on The Wall Street Journal website here.