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Carl Icahn says goodbye to HerbalifeINTL

Carl Icahn says goodbye to Herbalife

Investor Carl Icahn says bye-bye to Herbalife Nutrition as he sold over half of his stake back to the company for about $600 million (dinner’s on him, we suppose?). The billionaire investor is also giving up his firm’s five seats on Herbalife’s board, with Icahn Enterprises LP trimming down its prior 16% stake to about 6% on or before January 7.

The nutrition products maker agreed to buy back Icahn’s shares at $48.05 each, ending the 84-year-old’s legacy as its biggest shareholder after a turbulent eight-year investment. Herbalife faced several accusation claims throughout the past few years, particularly from Icahn’s fellow activist investor Bill Ackman, who branded the company a “pyramid scheme” after a very public clash between the two.

Icahn has been one of Herbalife’s biggest defenders – which is unsurprising considering it is estimated that he made more than $1 billion during his time with Herbalife – standing by its marketing model and at times even suggesting he would take the company private.

why it matters
Back in the third quarter of 2020, Icahn disposed of nearly $700 million worth of shares in the company, being left with a 16% stake worth around $950 million. While he claimed his time with Herbalife has organically come to an end as the company has grown and he doesn’t “typically invest billions of dollars in companies where our role as activist is not needed”, it is unclear what the future holds for the controversial brand, whose share prices slid 6.3% in the premarket following the announcement.