Icahn Says Epic Herbalife Battle With Ackman Was `A Good Fight'

(Bloomberg) -- Carl Icahn said he harbors no ill will toward fellow billionaire investor Bill Ackman after his rival bowed out of their five-year fight over Herbalife Ltd.

Any wounded feelings on Icahn's part may have been eased by what he said was a $1 billion return on his investment -- at least on paper. Ackman has almost entirely exited his short position in the nutritional-supplements company, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

“I enjoy a good fight, especially when I win,” Icahn said Thursday in an interview on CNBC.

Icahn even thanked Ackman for alerting him to the stock in the first place by taking a $1 billion short position in December 2012.

“The company really is great and Bill Ackman had the wrong idea on it,” Icahn said.

Icahn, who has defended Herbalife's multilevel-marketing model and publicly assailed Ackman on stages, television, the internet and in documentaries, is now the company's biggest holder with about 26 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The two first came to blows over the stock during a CNBC phone-in discussion in 2013.

That's all water under the bridge now, according to Icahn.

“I thought it was a classy thing. He called me up yesterday and congratulated me,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha

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