Altria cuts its losses on Juul, accepting a 98% collapse in its $12.8bn investment

Altria has confirmed that it has swapped its 35% stake in Juul Labs for heated tobacco intellectual property rights, ending an investment which plummeted in value from $12.8bn to only $250m in just over four years. So far, Juul has never launched a heat-not-burn (HnB) product, despite years of talks on working to develop such a device.

Altria CEO Billy Gifford  said: “We believe exchanging our Juul ownership for intellectual property rights is the appropriate path forward for our business.”