Bill Ackman's $2 Billion Bet. Let the Critiques Begin!

The suspense (if you want to call it that) is over. Feared activist hedge-funder Bill Ackman is making his biggest investment ever: a 9.8 percent stake in industrial-gas producer Air Products & Chemicals. His Pershing Square Capital Management’s stockpile in the Allentown, PA-based company’s shares cost $2.05 billion and is now worth $2.2 billion, Ackman said in a Wednesday email. Agitation will be in the offing.