Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Ackman resignation from CP board ends four year reign of terror that cost Canada 5,000+ jobs and made Ackman 2.6 billions

Canada's newspaper of record today bids a fond and fawning farewell to hedgie Bill Ackman, who is walking away from an immiserated Canadian Pacific after stuffing his pockets with 2.6 billion dollars. Here's the intro paragraph to writer Svea Herbst-Bayliss' story;

Activist investor William Ackman left the board of Canadian Pacific on Tuesday, marking the end of a four-year tenure that helped overhaul the ailing railroad company and earn his hedge fund roughly $2.6-billion.

I suppose 2,600 millions is a reasonable sum to pay an "activist investor" for overhauling an "ailing" company that had net income of $650,000,000 the year before Ackman began accumulating shares. After all, the writers and editors of Canada's number one business newspaper seem to think so.

I'm a little perturbed that Ackman's overhaul cost the Canadian economy somewhere north of 5,000 excellent jobs. The think tank here at Falling Downs was always a little iffy about why major Canadian media keep telling us that it's a good thing that American investors would or could be given carte blanche to loot an iconic Canadian company.

But they were, they did, and it's all over but the gloating by our media and the crying among those 5,000+ Canadian families who saw their bread-winners shunted out of well-paying jobs to set the table for Bill Ackman's heroic rescue of Canadian Pacific.

No comments:

Post a Comment