Why It Could Happen: A Look at the Changing Face of the Cigarette Business
Jump to full article: ABC News, 2009-11-12
Author: ALICE GOMSTYN ABC NEWS Business Unit
Intro: Why would a cigarette company buy a firm that makes products to help smokers quit?
It's a question that's left many scratching their heads ever since reports surfaced that Reynolds American -- the no. 2 U.S. tobacco company and the maker of Camel, Kool and Winston cigarettes, among others -- is in talks to acquire Niconovum.
Niconovum, a Swedish company, makes nicotine gum and other nicotine replacement products designed to wean smokers off of cigarettes. It was founded in 2000 by Karl Olov Fagerström, who the company's Web site trumpets as "one of the world's leading experts on smoking cessation and nicotine dependence."
Purchasing the company "runs totally counter to the mission statement of (Reynolds American subsidiary) R.J. Reynolds," said Gregory Connolly, a Harvard School of Public Health professor who researches tobacco products. "I'm astounded."
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