There’s some logic to activist investors’ plans for breaking up Shell, but questions remain

I guess this was bound to happen. Environmentalists put pressure on Big Oil to devote more of its big earnings to fund the transition to clean energy. Shell complied. And then investors (or at least one investor—Third Point’s Dan Loeb) demands to break up the company, separating the clean from the dirty.

There’s some logic to this. The market is clearly willing to throw money at clean energy companies even if they are “pre-profit”—Tesla proved that. So a pure-play “Clean Shell” could find it easy to raise money.  And there will always be investors willing to buy underpriced assets that throw off cash, like Dirty Shell. This lets investors be clean or dirty. But would the world be better off? Investment bankers would, for sure. Dan Loeb, possibly. But the rest of us? 

Separately, since it’s Friday, some feedback:

Judy Samuelson responded to my post saying it is perfectly reasonable for business groups to support the climate provisions in the Biden Build Back Better package while opposing the price tag and the tax breaks at the same time:

“The real question is how they are deploying their lobbying time. What proportion of time is being spent on defeating the tax raise vs. assuring that the (climate provisions) survive? Is it possible that business is willing to sacrifice the climate provisions to keep taxes down?”

Good question. 

And for those readers—like R.P. and E. B.—who insist on trying to suss out my politics, let me make it easy: I’m a radical centrist. Think of me as a Manchin-Sinema Democrat, or a Romney-Cheney Republican. As a general rule, I think politics is like golf: best when played in the fairway. And I support politicians willing to compromise to get things done, rather than make statements to get reelected.

Meanwhile, in the bad news department: If you are worried about your supply chain, you should read this story to find out why it’s even worse than you think. And if you are wondering when the “great resignation” will end, we have the answer here, and you probably won’t like it. By the way, you need to be a subscriber to read either of those stories. Maybe now is the time to finally sign up? We have a deal for you—a 50% discount if you go here and use the code: CEODAILY.

More news below.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

TOP NEWS

Democrat agreement

The Democrats have finally come to an agreement over the $1.75 trillion spending package, with a framework that does not include the so-called billionaire's income tax, though it does include a "new surtax on the income of multimillionaires and billionaires." Also in the mix: a 15% corporate minimum tax for large companies, and a 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks for large companies. Fortune

Metaverse skepticism

Facebook, the company, is now called Meta in honor of its new focus on building the "metaverse"—the virtual-reality world that Mark Zuckerberg sees as "the next chapter for the Internet." But you know who doesn't believe in actively trying to build the metaverse? One of the main people responsible for the task: John Carmack, the Oculus technology chief, who told delegates at the Connect conference: "My worry is that we could spend years and thousands of people, possibly, and wind up with things that didn't contribute all that much to the ways that people are actually using the devices and hardware today." Fortune

Apple drops

Supply constraints hit Apple's quarterly sales, causing the company to miss analyst estimates and raising worries about the holiday shopping season. Its share price fell as much as 5.3% in late trading. Fortune

Amazon warns

And as for Amazon, the e-commerce giant is also grappling with the supply-chain crisis. Its shares also fell around 5% after it gave a slightly disappointing forecast for holiday sales. M Science research director John Tomlinson: "I think people were hoping that [Q3] was the bottom. It doesn’t seem that’s the case." Fortune

AROUND THE WATER COOLER

FTC on M&A

The Democrat-controlled Federal Trade Commission has given itself veto power over the future M&A activities of companies that are caught trying to pull off an allegedly anticompetitive merger or acquisition. Wall Street Journal

Citi mandate

Citigroup has told all its U.S. employees that they will need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or go get another job. HR chief Sara Wechter explained why: "First, as the U.S. government is a large and important client of Citi, we have an obligation to comply with the Executive Order issued by the White House mandating that individuals supporting government contracts be fully vaccinated —an order that would impact the vast majority of our U.S. colleagues. Second, having a vaccinated workforce enables us to ensure the health and safety of our colleagues as we return to the office in the U.S." Fortune

Spreading COVID

A U.K. study shows that, when it comes to the Delta variant of the coronavirus, vaccinated people are just as likely to spread it to others in the household as unvaccinated people are. Bad news for anyone who thinks other people getting the jab means they don't have to. Fortune

Ether soars

The Ether cryptocurrency may play second fiddle to Bitcoin, but its market cap is getting close to overtaking the most famous virtual coin. It hit an all-time high yesterday, gaining as much as 3.5%. Some other so-called "alt coins" also gained. Fortune

This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.