Herbalife Buys 'Real Bill Ackman' Domain Names That Could Be Used In Counter-Attack
Now the company appears to be stepping up its defense and preparing a counter-attack.
Herbalife has registered a bunch of Bill Ackman domain names. And they look as though they might be used as a direct assault on the hedge fund manager.
The New York Post's Michelle Celarier reports that Herbalife now owns "therealbillackman.com, "billackman.net" and the "realackman.net" since January 18. The sites aren't active (yet).
Last month, Ackman gave a 342-slide presentation at a Sohn Conference in Manhattan calling Herbalife a pyramid scheme. His fund is shorting more than 20 million shares of Herbalife and has a price target of zero.
It didn't end there, either.
Following the presentation, Ackman's team launched "FactsAboutHerbalife.com" — a website that features documents, promotional material from the company, videos and depositions.
Ackman also purchased Google Ads when you search for terms related to Herbalife.
Herbalife responded immediately to Ackman's presentation saying he used "outdated", "inaccurate" and "distorted" information. The company also hosted an analyst day in January to rebut Ackman's claims.
Since December 18, the trading session before Bill Ackman confirmed his short, shares of Herbalife are down 5.84%.