Altria Entering E Cig Market This Year- A Reason to Fear?

[rothenbj]

The Marlboro E Cig is within sight, is there a reason to fear?

On the Call: Altria Group CEO Barrington - Yahoo! Finance

Personally, I don not like, "Our intention is to do this and do it responsibly. ... A lot of that will be defined by what the FDA has to say about how they intend to regulate these products."

Anyone want to bet they haven't had input already on what would doing it "responsibly" mean to a company like Altria? Guesses- Flavor restriction, strength, brick and mortar, sealed cartos. They're just guesses, but we all know how Marlboro likes controlling market share.

 

[rothenbj]

Interesting Financial information on Altria

Marlboro maker Altria to jump into e-cigarettes - CBS News

Altria cigarette volumes fell about 5 percent, to 29.7 billion, cigarettes compared with a year ago, other premium brands fell by more than 12 percent. Their market share still increased by half a percent ending up with 43.6 percent of the U.S. market. With all the pressure on cigarette sales they still had first-quarter profit rising about 16 percent. Higher prices for its cigarettes and smokeless tobacco plus adjustments to the MSA payments look like how they continue to increase profits. That's strong management with a lot of clout in Washington. Remember, every authority at every level has seen how the smoker will just pay whatever price.

Why should the vaper be any different.