Altria Group exchanges minority stake in JUUL Labs for heated tobacco IP rights

Altria Group announces that it has exchanged its entire minority economic investment in JUUL Labs for a non-exclusive, irrevocable global license to certain of JUUL’s heated tobacco intellectual property. "We believe exchanging our JUUL ownership for intellectual property rights is the appropriate path forward for our business," said Billy Gifford, Altria’s CEO. "JUUL faces significant regulatory and legal challenges and uncertainties, many of which could exist for many years. We are continuing to explore all options for how we can best compete in the e-vapor category. As of December 31, 2022, the carrying value and estimated fair value of our JUUL investment was $250 million. We will record the financial impact of the Agreement in the first quarter of 2023 and intend to treat any such amounts as a special item and exclude it from our adjusted diluted earnings per share."