United States of America eSeries: Bezos. Jeff Bezos 🍸

Bezos. Jeff Bezos 🍸

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I would greenlight six seasons of TV, a movie and a podcast about what went down at the Exxon shareholders' meeting today. Let's get into it.

By Allison Morrow

🛢️ 'A DAY OF RECKONING'

The oil industry witnessed two unprecedented events Wednesday that could have huge implications for the world's biggest energy companies. In both cases, the message is unmistakable: Ditch fossil fuels, and do it fast.

LET'S START WITH EXXONMOBIL

On Wednesday, at least two Exxon board directors were ousted by a small but powerful activist investor that is trying to push the company kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

This is the first credible threat from an activist investor in Exxon's modern history. The investor, a hedge fund called Engine No. 1, owns just a small fraction of Exxon shares, but it won support from bigger stakeholders.
Engine No. 1 argues the climate crisis poses an existential threat to Exxon — one the company hasn't taken seriously enough. Unlike its European rivals, Exxon has doubled down on oil and gas.
The fight with activists comes after a period of dismal performance for Exxon. As recently as 2013 it was the world's most valuable public company. Since its peak, Exxon's lost nearly $200 billion in market capitalization. It even got kicked off the Dow Jones Industrial Average last year after nearly a century on the exclusive index.
Key quote: "Investors are no longer standing on the sidelines," said Anne Simpson, managing investment director at the California Public Employees Retirement System, which backed the activist campaign. "This is a day of reckoning."

My colleagues Matt Egan and Alexis Benveniste have more details on the dramatic shareholder meeting.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT THE HAGUE...

A Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to dramatically reduce its carbon emissions by 45% from 2019 levels over the next decade.

This is a big deal for a couple of reasons:

This is the first time a court has ordered a private company to align its emissions with global climate goals, according to the environmental group that brought the case against Shell.
It sets a precedent for similar cases to be brought in other countries.

Both of these milestones come just a week after the influential International Energy Agency — not exactly a bunch of lefty environmentalists — told oil companies they need to stop drilling for oil and gas right now to prevent a climate catastrophe.

CNN Business' Hanna Ziady has more.

🏦 QUOTE OF THE DAY

Mr. Dimon, you are the star of the overdraft show.

Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for the $1.5 billion in overdraft fees the bank collected from consumers last year. "You and your colleagues came in today to talk about how you stepped up and took care of customers during a pandemic," Warren said, "and it's a bunch of baloney."

🎥 BOND, MEET BEZOS

It's official: Amazon is acquiring MGM, the home of James Bond and one of the most storied movie studios in Hollywood, for about $8.5 billion.

Reports about the deal had been popping up for weeks, but the announcement's timing and the price are notable.

Amazon put a ring on it just in time, as media consolidation is speeding up. If you're a streaming platform in 2021, you need a deep library of content to stand a chance against Netflix or Disney. That makes Amazon (lots of reach, not a lot of content) and MGM (loads of content, not so much reach) a match made in streaming Hollywood heaven.
That $8.5 billion figure is a lot if you compare it with, say, the meager $4 billion Disney paid for Marvel in 2009, or the same amount it paid for Lucasfilm (read: Star Wars) three years later. But $8.5 billion is essentially the change that Jeff Bezos finds in his couch cushions. Correction: That Jeff Bezos' cleaning staff finds in his couch cushions.

The takeaway, from CNN Business' Frank Pallotta: Amazon is getting thousands of classic titles with its acquisition, but MGM's main appeal? Three words: Bond, James Bond.

RELATED: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced he will officially step down from his role as chief executive on July 5.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

🍟 McDonald's collaboration with K-pop stars BTS goes beyond nuggets and includes limited-edition merch inspired by group's purple colors and the fast food chain's logo.

🚨 Economist Larry Summers is urging Washington to tap the brakes on stimulus — or risk unleashing a serious burst of inflation.

🚗 Ford is doubling down on electric vehicle development and says 40% of its vehicles sold by 2030 will be electric.

👍 Facebook and Instagram are giving all users the option to hide public "likes" on their posts.

📉 Shares of Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid dropped after Business Insider reported that Amazon is considering opening brick-and-mortar pharmacies in the United States.