FTC Determines Herbalife Isn't A Pyramid Scheme; Stock Up

(RTTNews) - The Federal Trade Commission has determined that Herbalife (HLF) is not a pyramid scheme. Separately, Herbalife said that its Board freed Carl Icahn to acquire up to 34.99% of the company's Outstanding Common Shares.

In Friday Pre-Market trade, HLF is currently trading at $64.44, up $5.08 or 8.56%.

The Nutrition supplements company agreed to fully restructure their U.S. business operations and pay $200 million to compensate consumers to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the companies deceived consumers into believing they could earn substantial money selling diet, nutritional supplement, and personal care products.

The FTC opened a probe into the company after hedge fund manager Bill Ackman alleged that it operated like a pyramid scheme.

According to the FTC's complaint, Herbalife claims that people who participate can expect to quit their jobs, earn thousands of dollars a month, make a career-level income, or even get rich. But the truth, as alleged in the FTC complaint, is that the overwhelming majority of distributors who pursue the business opportunity earn little or no money.

The settlement announced today requires Herbalife to revamp its compensation system so that it rewards retail sales to customers and eliminates the incentives in its current system that reward distributors primarily for recruiting. It mandates a new compensation structure in which success depends on whether participants sell Herbalife products, not on whether they buy products.

Global nutrition company Herbalife Ltd. confirmed that it reached a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission resolving the FTC's multi-year investigation of the Company. The terms of the settlement do not change Herbalife's business model as a direct selling company and set new standards for the industry. With the settlement agreement announced today, the FTC's investigation of Herbalife is complete.

Herbalife and the Illinois Attorney General also reached a settlement, and the Company agreed to pay $3 million as part of this separate agreement. With the conclusion of the Illinois investigation, the Company is not aware of any active investigations by any other state attorney general.

While the Company believes that many of the allegations made by the FTC are factually incorrect, the Company believes settlement is in its best interest because the financial cost and distraction of protracted litigation would have been significant, and after more than two years of cooperating with the FTC's investigation, the Company simply wanted to move forward.

The Company's Board of Directors unanimously approved the settlements and voluntarily established an Oversight Committee of the Board that will ensure full compliance with the terms of the agreement. The Board also appointed Henry Wang, presently Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, to lead the Company's implementation efforts, reporting directly to the Committee on these matters. Additionally, Pamela Jones Harbour, currently Senior Vice President of Global Member Practices and Compliance and former FTC Commissioner, was appointed to oversee implementation of new distributor compliance initiatives.

As part of the settlement, the Company agreed to new procedures and enhancements to some policies that already exist. Many of the terms agreed to were either already being contemplated by the Company or are extensions of practices already in place and will be implemented over the next 10 months.

The company additionally announced that it has granted Carl Icahn, Icahn Enterprises Holdings L.P. and certain related entities the right to increase the size of their maximum ownership position in Herbalife to up to 34.99% of the Company's outstanding common shares from a previous maximum of 25%. The Icahn Parties currently own 17 million common shares of Herbalife, representing approximately 18.3% of the Company's outstanding common shares. Herbalife's 13-member Board of Directors will continue to include five members designated by the Icahn Parties.