Late on Friday, another bizarre twist emerged in Bill Ackman’s chaotic attempt to take public Pershing Square USA, his closed-end fund that will mirror the investments in his Pershing Square hedge fund and is open to any retail investor with 50 bucks and a dream—and that might elevate Ackman into the position of meme stock lord. As you’ll recall, some leaks emerged several weeks ago suggesting that Pershing Square USA was on track to raise as much as $25 billion—which would have made it the largest-ever closed-end fund by a factor of five. Last week, it was revealed that the hoped-for war chest had shrunk to around $10 billion, and more likely to between $5 billion and $10 billion. Strange days. And then on Friday, Bill did not file the “final” prospectus, as he said he would in a letter sent Thursday to accredited, high-net-worth investors in Pershing Square, whom he was encouraging to invest in Pershing Square USA. Per Ackman’s letter, the new fund seemed to have lowered its targeted haul again: to a now-promised $2.5 billion to $4 billion. 

After this new revelation, a number of media entities reported that the New York Stock Exchange posted a brief note on its website announcing that the Pershing Square USA I.P.O. had been postponed. But I can’t find the note. (Apparently, the NYSE amended its headline, saying the offering had been delayed instead of postponed.) And then, around 6 p.m. on Friday night, Pershing Square USA announced that it was proceeding with the I.P.O. but did not make any statement regarding how much money Ackman now intended to raise. A spokesman for Bill declined to comment beyond the Pershing Square USA statement. Then on Saturday morning, Bill published a tweet presumably aimed at the media outlets that reported the deal was effectively dead. “How can it be legal for a reporter to write a false, misleading, and libelous story based on one anonymous source?” he wrote on X.