So ends Bill Ackman’s valiant effort to prove that platform value is just like any other kind of value.
Pershing Square Capital Management’s three-year partnership with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, which comprised a lucrative but legally controversial and ultimately unsuccessful takeover bid for botox-maker Allergan, a lengthy commendation of CEO Mike Pearson’s strategic genius at the Sohn Conference in 2015, and $4 billion in losses – roughly equivalent to gains on Canadian Pacific Railway and Allergan – ended Monday with confirmation the activist had sold its shares and would not stand its representatives for re-election at the 2017 annual meeting. Unfortunately, the investment community was more than available for comment.


