Big Tobacco so incompetent they found a way to make vaping fail

January 31, 2020

so spectacularly that Altria is taking another nice $4.1 Billion loss in their stake in Juul.  You might recall an earlier write-down of $4.5 billion, as the tobacco giant’s stake in the vaping start-up is now worth one-third of what it paid in 2018. Altria had bought its stake in Juul as it was attempting to pivot away from cigarettes. Juul was at the time valued at $38 billion.

Normally any vape news is heavily slanted over here in the positive light, not just because we're an eLiquid company and the fact that vaping is literally saving smokers lives, but because we want to promote harm reduction in general and vaping is a great technology that does just that. 

It feels weird to gloat over the failings of a fellow vape company, but in this case that company is the sell out Juul and Altria now values its 35 percent stake in the e-cigarette company at $4.2 billion, which is a significant drop from the $12.8 billion it paid in December 2018. Just three months ago in the midst of the worlds anti-vape hysteria, Altria, one of the world’s largest tobacco sellers, devalued its investment in Juul by $4.5 billion

Altria, the infamous maker of Marlboro cigarettes, said its fourth-quarter was tossed largely due to the growing number of legal cases pending against Juul, which had increased more than 80 percent since the end of October.  Howard Willard, chief executive of Altria, said that despite “the unexpected challenges” Juul faced, the company had made progress in its noncombustible platform with the IQOS e-cigarette, which they have been unsuccessfully trying to bring to market for dang near a decade now. 

In the last half of 2019 thousands of Americans had reported being sickened by lung illnesses tied to vaping, with at least 59 people dying, prompting the anti-vape hysteria and militarized soccer moms to call for a ban on the products. After an irresponsibly long time of about six months the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally reported that the patients who developed the so called "vaping-related" lung disease had vaped illicit THC black market cartridges.

This promoted the hysteria and anti-vaping backlash of 2019. Juul has since been hit with lawsuits by federal agencies and state attorneys general, who contend that the company targeted young people with deceptive marketing, including nicotine pods with flavors like mango.  Because thanks to the data that doesn't exist anywhere in reality we all know only children eat mangos and not one adult has ever enjoyed flavors of any kind. 

The Food and Drug Administration announced a partial ban on flavored pods this month, forbidding the sale of most flavors but exempting menthol and tobacco flavors.  Which again raises questions of exactly what product alternatives they wish people to defer to when they can no longer vape. 

Recently installed K.C. Crosthwaite, the chief executive of Juul, when asked anything pertinent to the gigantic loss in value for the company said Juul was focused on “preparing high-quality, scientifically rigorous premarket tobacco product applications to earn authorization in the U.S.”

“As we continue to reset the vapor category, we are committed to advancing the long-term potential for harm reduction for adult smokers while combating underage use,” Mr. Crosthwaite limply said in a statement once again dodging the hard question for this massive devaluation. 

What do you think about Juul's loss? Is this really a win for anyone? Is my somewhat gloating tone appropriate for this big tobacco sell out shill company turning it's back on us, the real vape community? Will Juul ever recover from all the legislation and lawsuits? Does anyone even care? 

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