, Columnist
Bill Ackman's Plan for ADP Is ... Wait for It
His statement Monday provided few specifics for a campaign that so far seems half-baked.
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Bill Ackman has a plan for Automatic Data Processing Inc. But we'll all just have to wait for it.
The investor's activist campaign at the $50 billion provider of human-resources services has been swatted down by everyone from the company itself to the analysts that follow it and even former ADP board member Leon Cooperman. Part of the problem is that it was ADP, not Ackman, that first publicized his demands, apparently catching him flat-footed and armed with little detail to back up vague generalizations about the opportunity for "transformational change" and a 50 percent increase in its profit margins.