Altria Group Inc. said Monday it would buy e-vapor company NJOY Holdings Inc. for $2.75 billion in cash, its second deal in recent days in the smokeless-tobacco space.
Altria MO said the transaction includes $500 million in additional milestone payments, including control of all of NJOY’s e-vapor product portfolio. Altria CEO Billy Gifford said that with the NJOY deal, the company will offer “strengths of our commercial resources” and expanded competition in the sector as a benefit to adult tobacco consumers.
Gifford said its ownership of intellectual-property rights for Juul “is the appropriate path forward” given that the company continues to face “significant regulatory and legal challenges and uncertainties, many of which could exist for many years.”
How can anyone, investors or otherwise, support the use of this useless and unhealthy product?