, Columnist
Exxon’s Activist Uses Weapons Provided by Exxon
The focus is not on melting ice caps but weak shareholder returns.
An activist target.
Photographer: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
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The most telling line in a new activist letter urging Exxon Mobil Corp. to embrace environmental sustainability has nothing to do with sustainability:
Engine No. 1 LLC, the new fund targeting Exxon, has the backing of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, with stakes adding up to about 0.2% of the market cap. So this is like a speedboat taking on a supertanker. What makes it noteworthy is that Exxon effectively fashioned the weapons the activist is now brandishing against it.