Minutes after P&G said it had defeated the biggest proxy challenge in history, Nelson Peltz told CNBC the company put "ego" over shareholder interests.
The Procter & Gamble vote Tuesday was "as close to a dead heat" as possible, the billionaire hedge fund manager told CNBC.
After P&G's announcement that it had turned back giving the activist investor a seat on its board, Peltz said: "Our numbers don't say that."
He told "Squawk on the Street" the vote is probably plus or minus 1 percent. He said "no matter what happens," P&G should put him on the board.
"Because even if they win, which I'm not sure they did, think of what a pyrrhic victory is it. Think about it. I mean everybody but the current employees voted for us up and down the line," Peltz said.
In response to Peltz's comment, P&G CEO David Taylor told CNBC that putting the activist investor on the board either way is not under consideration. "We will honor the shareholders' vote," Taylor said.
Taylor added that "ego" wasn't behind the board's rejection of Peltz but "concern" for the future of the company.
The results came in based off a preliminary vote, and P&G has said it will file results when they are final with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"I don't think they're serving their shareholders properly," Peltz said, adding P&G has the wrong corporate structure.
"I threatened the hallowed halls of that boardroom," Peltz said, adding "ego" was the reason P&G opposed his appointment.
"There my be arrows in my back today," he said.
Shares of P&G fell after the news but the stock is still up more than 8 percent year to date.
Peltz's $12.7 billion hedge fund, Trian Partners, took a $3.5 billion stake in P&G earlier this year. He has said he was seeking a P&G board seat because the company has "lost its soul."
The activist investor wanted the company to reorganize around three distinct global businesses. He was looking to divide household, personal and family care products in an effort to streamline operations and revive market share for some of its premiere brands, such as Gillette razors, Tide detergent and Pampers diapers.
Peltz has said the company's transformation is being hindered by its "suffocating bureaucracy."
Given Procter & Gamble's market value of more than $230 billion, it was the largest company to face a proxy fight.