Tobacco.org

• New York's Tisch family eases away from cigarettes 

Forty years ago, the New York business magnates Laurence Tisch and Preston Robert Tisch capitalized on growing public health concerns over smoking by buying a cigarette company at a bargain price.

It proved a good investment - even if the Tisch name has sometimes been stigmatized, as when an airplane once trailed a banner over Long Island, New York, beaches reading "Larry Tisch sells cancer sticks." The tobacco company's flagship Newport brand flourished, becoming the leading menthol cigarette and No.2 over all, after Marlboro, in large part because Newports are enormously popular among black smokers.

Now, the next generation of Tisches has removed tobacco from the portfolio of the conglomerate they lead, the Loews Corp., spinning it off as a stand-alone business, with the Newport brand representing more than 90 percent of the new company's revenue.

The new stock began trading Tuesday following overwhelming enthusiasm for the offer to trade Loews shares for the new stock. Analysts have said the new standalone company might be a takeover target.

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