Profile Bill Ackman: Falling short

Factfile

Age:51

Appearance: silver-haired, blue-eyed, expensively tailored

Newsworthiness: Ackman’s bet against controversial nutritional supplement company Herbalife has taken one of its many turns for the worse

A billion dollars is a big bet, even for one of the world’s best-known hedge fund managers. But Bill Ackman has taken precisely that bet against Herbalife, the gigantic US nutritional supplements company.

Ackman’s reasoning was simple: Herbalife is a pyramid scheme, and its products are overpriced ...