REUTERS: Billionaire investor William Ackman has approached short-term home rental company Airbnb Inc about going public through a reverse merger with his blank-check company, according to people familiar with the matter.
The approach by Ackman's Pershing Square Tontine Holdings Ltd underscores the scale and ambition of the types of deals Ackman is pursuing with the new vehicle, which raised US$4 billion through an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year to buy a private company.