William Ackman acknowledged that he had made mistakes in bets on retailers. The activist investor said that he had lost millions of dollars on retailer bets including J.C Penney. He was also stuck against Herbalife where he is confronted with huge paper losses. Ackman wrote shareholders a letter after less than a week of his embarrassing exit from the J.C Penney board. Ackman has encountered three "failures" at his USD11 billion hedge fund, Perishing Square Capital Management.

Ackman was said to have failed in three retailers that included Target, J.C Penney and Borders Group, which is now bankrupt. The activist investor said the he could depart Penney where he owns thirty nine million shares. Perishing Square Capital is also the biggest investor in the retail company.

At Target, Ackman exited after losing a 19-month long and expensive proxy fight. He also spent a lot of ink to his existing problem bet with Herbalife. Ackman is sitting on approximately USD300 million losses.