Tobacco Giant Altria Just Made a $12.8 Billion Investment in Juul

With a $12.8 billion investment, Altria, the nation’s leading tobacco company, now owns 35% of Juul Labs, maker of the country’s most popular e-cigarette. With the new investment, Juul is now valued at $38 billion, according to Altria’s announcement. The company will remain independent, though it will now have access to Altria’s “infrastructure and services,” as well as retail space alongside its combustible cigarettes, direct marketing to cigarette customers through pack inserts and mailings and access to Altria’s sales network. The deal has raised eyebrows given Juul’s long-stated mission of giving adult smokers a healthier alternative to cigarettes. (E-cigarettes typically deliver nicotine but contain fewer cancer-causing chemicals than traditional cigarettes. It’s still unclear exactly how they affect health.) But both companies claim that, despite the investment’s seemingly contradictory nature, it will help, not hinder, efforts to switch smokers. “We understand the controversy and skepticism that comes with an affiliation and partnership with the largest tobacco company in the US,” Juul CEO Kevin Burns said in a statement provided to TIME. “We were skeptical as well. But over the course of the last several months we were convinced by actions, not words, that in fact this partnership could help accelerate our success switching adult smokers.” Altria reiterated that sentiment in its own s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime onetime public health Source Type: news