After proposingthat Target's real estate gets folded into a REIT and gettingrejected,Pershing Square Capital Management has now turned its sights toGeneral Growth Properties.The website-less fund, managed by William Ackman, has nowapparently acquired a 20% interest in the mall owner. In aBloomberg article, Merrill Lynch analysts say it "is thefirst sign that any investor has expressed a strong interest in thecompany or sees significant value beyond the mountain of debt."We're certainly not investment experts by any means, butdoesn't it seem kind of funky? Kind of like reaching for straws? Ordoes it just make sense to buy up shares of a company trading under$1 that has real estate theoretically valued in the manybillions?We were recently in Boston, staying near GGP's Faneuil Hall MarketPlace, and even though the weather was akin toAntarctica's, plenty of people were milling about and filling therestaurants on weekday evenings. It's probably not the mostscientific example, but it made us think that this portfolio has tobe worth something to someone.