In today\u2019s CEO Daily: Diane Brady examines Bill Ackman\u2019s effort to build a modern-day Berkshire\u2014 without the folksy charm.<\/p>\n
The big leadership story: Anthropic is giving companies an early look at its most advanced AI model.<\/p>\n
The markets: Stocks skyrocket globally on news of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal.<\/p>\n
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.<\/p>\n
Good morning. Is Bill Ackman like Warren Buffett?<\/p>\n
The CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management cited a desire to unleash \u201clong-term value\u201d when making yesterday\u2019s $64 billion bid to acquire Universal Music Group<\/a>. He\u2019s long admired the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway<\/a>, who handed the CEO role to Greg Abel<\/a> earlier this year. And Ackman revived talk of creating a modern-day Berkshire <\/a>last month when filing to list Pershing with a new fund on the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n As investors look at Pershing\u2019s impending IPO as an alternative to Berkshire in the world of value investing, it\u2019s worth comparing the two men and the companies they\u2019ve built.<\/p>\n Investing Approach \u2013 Buffett has a six-decade track record of 20% compound annual returns to investors, roughly double the S&P 500. Ackman\u2019s hedge fund has delivered similar returns since its 2004 launch, not including fees. But it\u2019s a choppier journey when you\u2019re an activist investor who names enemies, looks for problems to fix and wages war in public. Pershing\u2019s turnover is double that of Berkshire, though both are relatively low, and it\u2019s a fraction the size. Ackman\u2019s focus on fee growth and asset management is also more akin to Blackstone<\/a> than Berkshire. Capital can be more nimble than a conglomerate. But Ackman\u2019s UMG bid reinforces a philosophy embraced by Buffett, who prefers to buy \u201cwonderful businesses at fair prices\u201d<\/a> and work privately with management to unlock value<\/a>.<\/p>\n Personal Brand \u2013 The differences in temperament and tactics are stark. It\u2019s hard to compete with a billionaire who clips McDonald\u2019s coupons and still lives in the house he bought for $31,500<\/a> in 1958. While Ackman says he turns off lights and drives around to look for cheap parking<\/a>, I know who I\u2019d cast for the role of George Bailey in It\u2019s A Wonderful Life. Among other things, Buffett is polite<\/a>, down to earth<\/a>, and feels a civic duty to pay higher taxes<\/a>. Ackman is more polarizing, using his platform to condemn DEI as anti-capitalist<\/a>, speak out against tariffs<\/a>, bet on political races<\/a>, and take a hardball approach to \u201cfixing things.\u201d<\/a> An everyman, he\u2019s not. Ackman\u2019s unsuccessful campaign against Herbalife made him look out of touch<\/a>, at least to those of us who had plenty of experience with multilevel-marketing companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In today\u2019s CEO Daily: Diane Brady examines Bill Ackman\u2019s effort to build a modern-day Berkshire\u2014 without the folksy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[1144,11991,12845,12211,669],"class_list":{"0":"post-17751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-warren-buffett","8":"tag-berkshire-hathaway","9":"tag-bill-ackman","10":"tag-pershing-square-capital-management","11":"tag-universal-music-group","12":"tag-warren-buffett"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116373073606853799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}