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Billionaire Investor Says He’s Newly Focused On “Need To Make Money”

Billionaire hedge fund magnate Bill Ackman told Bloomberg this week that he used to take making money for granted.

“I need to make money,” the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management told the news organization. “Now I’m very focused.”

The comments, made at a dinner benefitting the Pershing Square Foundation, which Ackman also founded, come months after Ackman threw in the towel on an ill-fated investment in the firm Valeant Pharmaceuticals, losing over $3 billion. Pershing itself has taken a thorough beating over the past two years.

“The biggest investment failure of my career happened in the last 18 months or so,” Ackman said at the gala, according to Bloomberg. “I blame part of that on not managing my time effectively.”

Pershing Square Foundation has supported a number of Jewish causes, including the Center for Jewish History and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s Aleph Society.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

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