Beware the beautiful eyes of Bill Ackman, the CEO and founder of Pershing Square Capital Management. When he gets a crush on a business it usually means he has some bold new plan to make drastic changes in order to achieve drastic profits.
In 2015 the gaze of Ackman was on Wendy’s, which he pressured into selling off the profitable Tim Horton’s chain. Ackman sold his shares at a substantial profit, and then stock price later collapsed.
When he later took on McDonald’s the process wasn’t quite as smooth. Was his idea flawed or was it that McDonald’s is already an efficient and well run company? We dive into this topic of activist investors in the burger space with a special guest, Marcus Estes, who helps provide some larger context to the analysis of the case study McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Hedge Funds: Hambuger Hedging?
Coming up next:
We will be reading case studies about McDonald’s and AI and the ill-fated attempt by McDonald’s to enter the hospitality industry.
Housekeeping:
This is episode six of ten for the inaugural season of Hamburger Business Review. Your financial support allows us to continue to buy Harvard Business School case studies about the burger industry. Thank you.
Burger Hedging: Are The Parts Greater Than The Whole?