Activist investor
The epic feud between these two titans goes back a decade, to when Ackman was running his former hedge fund Gotham Partners. In short, they did a deal together and it ended up going to court with Ackman winning.
Today, Icahn, who was dropping curse words left and right on live TV, was full of insults for Ackman. He even had a few for host Scott Wapner, who was basically a referee today.
We noticed that Ackman held his composure during the segment. He didn't throw around curse words or mean insults. He mostly just called Icahn dishonest.
Anyway, here's a round up of some of the little gems that came from Icahn's mouth today.
ON WHEN ACKMAN CALLED HIM IN 2003:
"I'm telling you he's like a crybaby in the schoolyard. I went to a tough school in Queens, you know, and they used to beat up the little Jewish boys. He was like one of the little Jewish boys crying ..."
ON ACKMAN AS A FRIEND:
"He's the quintessential example of 'if you want a friend on Wall Street, get a dog.'"
ON HAVING DINNER WITH ACKMAN:
"As far as I'm concerned, he wanted to have dinner with me. I couldn't figure out if he was the most sanctimonious guy I met in my life or just arrogant and that's Ackman."
ON ACKMAN DONATING ANY HLF PROFITS TO CHARITY:
"He talks about charity. That's complete bullshit!"
ON ACKMAN SAYING ICAHN IS A GOOD INVESTOR:
"I appreciate you, Bill, calling me a 'great investor', but unfortunately I cannot say the same for you."
**BONUS: ON WHEN SCOTT WAPNER ASKED HIM IF HE'S LONG HLF:
"I want to say what I want to say and I'm not going to talk about my Herbalife position because you want to bully me ... I don't give a damn about what you want to know. I want to talk about what I want to talk about ... You can say what the hell you want. I'm going to talk about what Ackman just said about me, not about Herbalife ... I'll talk about Herbalife when I goddamn want to ... I'm never going on a show with you again, that's for damn sure, OK."
It was entertaining to say the least.