Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has intensified his dispute with Business Insider, urging the outlet’s parent company in a 77-page letter to either sell the publication or reform its journalistic practices.
The demand letter from the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management’s legal firm comes in response to a series of Business Insider articles scrutinizing Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, over alleged plagiarism in her 2010 doctoral dissertation. The letter, addressed to executives at Axel Springer including CEO Dr. Mathias Döpfner, denounces the stories as defamatory and threatens future legal action.
“We are striving to avoid litigation by providing Axel Springer with this demand letter, outlining all the facts regarding Business Insider’s coverage of this matter, the factual inaccuracies therein, Axel Springer’s false statements about Business Insider’s reporting, and a proposed resolution,” Ackman stated in a tweet Friday.
The dispute originates from Business Insider’s investigative reports on Neri Oxman’s professional and academic conduct, including allegations of plagiarism. Ackman defends his wife, dismissing the accusations as unfounded attacks fueled by his public stances on various issues, including support for Israel and criticism of former Harvard president Claudine Gay.
“If we can resolve this matter as we have proposed, we can avoid litigation and, more importantly, hopefully put an end to Business Insider’s unethical and unprofessional practices,” Ackman said.
He added that the letter can be “converted’ into a complaint file: “It will not go unnoticed that the demand letter reads remarkably similarly to the pleadings of a lawsuit.”
