Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Stumbles on Netflix Bet

New York based Bill Ackman's Pershing Square (the company he founded in 2004 with $54m)  reversed a $1bn position in Netflix (purchased in January) after the streaming media firm announced an outflow of 200,00 subscribers (partly due to its exit from Russia) generating a 35% drop in share price.  

This exit resulted in a $400m loss for Pershing investors. 

Bill imparted the need to act quickly and pointed to Netflix's "enormous operating leverage" as the reason why future subscriber growth revisions would have an "outsized impact on (his) estimate of intrinsic value". This is not Bill's biggest lost - he had earlier lost $4bn in his stake in pharma firm, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (now renamed to Bausch Health).

In closing, Bill also expressed optimism about the "opportunity rich" environment and confidence in putting the Netflix sale proceeds to good use.

Pershing Square also has a UK closed-end fund, Pershing Square Holdings (PSH), launched in October 2014 on the London Stock Exchange, and whose legal entity is incorporated in Guernsey.