When the Wolves Bite: Two Billionaires, One Company, and an Epic Wall Street Battle Hardcover – April 24, 2018

I am not a financial geek, numbers whiz, nor until now, did I know who most of the people in this book were. However, because I'd recently heard that Bill Ackman was dating Brad Pitt's alleged love interest, Neri Oxman from MIT, I decided to give this book a try (yep, totally random and completely unrelated from the topic at hand). If a person like me can utterly enjoy this book, I guarantee most of the entire more sophisticated reading populace will as well.This book chronicles the activist shareholder fight over the company Herbalife - never even heard of this apparently mega Wall Street dispute until now - that's what I get for reading TMZ instead of the Wall Street Journal. Bill Ackman, activist investor and owners of Pershing Square Management, bets that the company is a pyramid scheme, takes a $1 Billion (Yes, billion with a B!!) "short" position in the stock, essentially trying to put it out of business and reap a huge return for his investors. This book feels like it could have been the script for the movie, the Big Short. On the other side, the poor Herbalife CEO, Michael Johnson, watches his stock slide due to Ackman's efforts until big guns like Daniel Loeb and Carl Icahn (thankfully, I had heard of him!) join the party, and take sides in the dispute opposite Ackman (i.e, "going long" on Herbalife)The book is a fascinating glimpse into the minds of the top .5% in the world, and shows that when they get petty because of the personal grudges, the stakes are measured in millions rather than number of Facebook posts. I would have never expected this subject matter to be a can't put down page turner, it isn't the Bourne identity by any means, but the author does as a fantastic job with this financial thriller - I feel a little silly saying that.No previous expertise required, just pick up and read- well worth your time.

As someone who religiously followed the Herbalife saga unfold I can say I thoroughly enjoyed reading When The Wolves Bite. To address some of the initial reviews, Betting on Zero is not a 2 hour summary of this book, and Scott is not the TMZ of Wall Street in my opinion.The majority of the novel followed the series of events regarding the HLF saga. I was pleasantly surprised as to how Wapner narrates the story, keeping a neutral tone throughout the entirety of the novel. Readers will be able to draw their own judgement regarding the ego's involved here. Weaved into the story are aspects of the HLF saga that haven't been told before which warrant picking up this book if you're familiar with the story. My favorite part is the ending on who really won the battle between Icahn and Ackman. Good food for thought.Parts of the story did leave me wanting more, particularly around the CNBC news side of things. At times I found myself wondering if someone unfamiliar with the HLF story would find this book as entertaining as me if they picked it up for a quick read. My guess is they might, but its possible they would interpret this as a Wall Street drama and move on.Overall, the novel is a good read that tailors more to viewers of Scott's CNBC Halftime Report and followers of the HLF saga. I can say with complete confidence that I'm looking forward to Scott's next novel!

I found Wapner's book to be a very well written and a very entertaining recount of an epic wall street battle. This book is even more relevant today when CEO's like Musk battle on a daily basis in the media against short sellers targeting the stock of their companies. I respect that Wapner does not try to lead the reader in any way as to whether Ackman's short of Herbalife was the right position or Icahn's vendetta was justified. The story is filled with details that give the struggle between the two hedge fund managers a lot of context and place the reader in the mist of the scuffle. Fun and informative, hard to put down, worth the read.

A bit disappointing because I would have liked some additional research as to whether the company truly did rely on it’s distributor base to generate sales

Overall, this book is very enjoyable. Watching the YouTube clip at the center of this story is necessary (either before or after reading) to get an idea of how unusual it was for this to happen. It was difficult to put the book down, despite knowing (at least somewhat) where things end up in the end. My criticism would be that Wapner has professional relationships with our protagonists so I wonder if he was the correct person to write this. He was mediator to the largest on-air scuffle between the two (Icahn and Ackman) but I'm not sure that means he must be the one to tell the entire story. He obviously worked very hard to get the interviews and the story from each side but at the heart of the story is the uglier side of hedge funds: greed and ego. These aren't really explored - how can they be when they are written by someone in the industry? The question of whether or not Herbalife is a legitimate business or not is never really explored beyond the presenting of the facts of Ackman's thesis. It seems like Ackman may have been right about the company but wrong about the trade. Another sobering reality of Wall Street.

I think Jim Cramer summed it up correctly on CNBC the day the book was released in April, "it reads like a novel". While I was keenly aware of the public back and forth between Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman regarding their battle over Herbalife, there was a ton that I did not know that led to this showdown of activist investors. 'Wolves' is the culmination of a unique event by Wall Street standards, fortuitous access, great reporting, and entertaining storytelling. If you are interested in money, markets and the battle of billionaires over what appeared to me to be a shady company and business, with a very uncertain outcome, then this book is a home run read.

Very enjoyable book. I’ve long suspected that other writers in this genre have embellished favorable facts and ignored unfavorable ones in the interest of spinning a good yard with clear villains/heroes, geniuses/dolts. This book felt much more authentic. It was evenhanded, thorough and an extremely enjoyable read. Well done.

Excelente narrativa das grandes jogadas feitas no mercado de ações americano nos anos recentes. A narrativa principal tem como assunto a briga entre dois bilionários e gestores de fundos de altíssima influência.Um deles deseja ganhar dinheiro com o sucesso da Herbalife, o outro com o fracasso.O mais legal do livro é que ele te traz para dentro do contexto de como acontecem as grandes transações na bolsa. Os dois bilionários são acionistas e ativistas, ou seja, eles utilizam de seus enormes poderes para influenciar no valor da ação. É uma surpreendente loucura que dá uma ideia do nível de vantagem que certas pessoas tem sobre as outras quando o assunto é investimento no mercado de ações.Me peguei lembrando dos escândalos de BRF, Petro, Vale, construtoras diversas, entre outras, e como manipulações devem ocorrer sem que o cidadão comum tenha qualquer acesso a essa informação.O autor aproveita para narrar a briga da Herbalife que foi em sua maior parte pública. Além disso, na posição de apresentador de um programa de TV ele teve acesso a conversas internas o que tornou possível uma narrativa recheada de informações detalhadas do ocorrido.Livro fundamental para conhecer a ponta do iceberg e fomentar nossa imaginação para contemplar o que ocorre por baixo dos panos no mercado de ações.

Fascinating story

An unbiased view expressed very well