Herbalife is a multi-level marketing company, or MLM. Such companies distribute their products through a network of independent contractors who are rewarded not just for selling the product, but also for recruiting other distributors to sell the product, who are incentivized, in turn, to recruit still more distributors to sell the product, in a pyramidal pattern. Some consumer advocates argue that all MLMs should be illegal because they can become pyramid schemes. But courts have said that such businesses can be lawful so long as they observe certain safeguards to ensure sustainability. At the time I wrote in my feature last September, Ackman said that Herbalife's stock would have to dip to the low-30s for him to make a profit, and that the cost of maintaining his position came to about $100 million a year. He has repeatedly asserted that Herbalife's stock will eventually go to zero, either due to being shut down by the authorities or from collapsing of its own unsustainability.