Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman — who disclosed in a Thursday (April 17) post on X that the firm owns a 19.8% stake Hertz — said in the post that Hertz and Uber would be ideal partners to roll out a fleet of autonomous vehicles (AVs).
Calling the idea a “fun thought experiment,” Ackman said in the post that such a partnership would bring together Hertz’s fleet of 500,000 vehicles, expertise in vehicle maintenance and 11,200 locations globally with Uber’s ability to improve the utilization and profitability of that fleet.
“Come to think of it, I am going to call [Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi],” Ackman said in a post.
In a reply to the post, Khosrowshahi said: “Hertz has been a great partner of ours @Uber — excited to brainstorm on how we can expand on our relationship!”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported on this exchange Friday, said Ackman and Pershing Square were once known for waging proxy fights and short selling but now focus on “holding a concentrated portfolio of well-known stocks that it believes are undervalued.”
The WSJ also reported that Hertz CEO Gil West said in a note to employees that they should feel encouraged and energized by Ackman’s post.
Ackman said in his post on X that the car rental can be very profitable, that West and his management team are making improvements to the company, and that Hertz is “uniquely well-positioned in the current tariff environment” because it owns more than 500,000 vehicles at a time when tariffs are likely to cause an increase in used car prices.
“A 10% increase in used car prices would equate to a $1.2 billion gain on its auto assets — equivalent to approximately half of the company’s current market capitalization,” Ackman said in the post.
The previous CEO of Hertz stepped down in March 2024, weeks after reports that the company was weighing job cuts after selling off about a third of its electric vehicle fleet and saying it was losing money on the cars.
In addition to selling its electric vehicle fleet, the company also halted plans to purchase tens of thousands of electric vehicles.
