Eonsmoke, a leading brand of electronic cigarettes today publicly denied rumors of an Altria Group buyout of the young e-cigarette business. The company stated they are not involved in any acquisition negotiations with Phillip Morris. Rumors began circulating December 20th that Eonsmoke executives were meeting with Marlboro management about a possible sale.
"We don't even know how these rumors began; We haven't been approached or been involved in any talks with Phillip Morris International or their American arm Altria Group," said Igor Gromadskiy, Chief Operating Officer of Eonsmoke, LLC. "My phone has been ringing since Thursday morning with distributors and wholesalers asking questions who are completely afraid they won't be able to sell Eonsmoke products anymore."
Phillip Morris which houses the Marlboro, Parliament, and Virginia Slims brands of cigarettes has not yet introduced an electric cigarette or acquired a business inside the hyper-growing e-cigarette industry. Phillip Morris USA entered the smokeless tobacco industry recently with Marlboro Snus and the purchase of UST, Inc in 2009. Many tobacco analysts are expecting an entry into electronic cigarettes by Phillip Morris since Lorillard purchased Blu Cigs in April of 2012 for $135 million.
"We think e-cigs are to tobacco what energy drinks are to the beverage industry. Therefore, we think big tobacco needs to wake up and recognize the potential opportunity of the e-cigarette category," According to Bonnie Herzog, managing director of beverage, tobacco and consumer research at Wells Fargo Securities LLC.
"We received too many inquiries to handle on a case by case basis so we had to publicly notify everyone," said Gregory Grishayev, Chief Financial Officer of Eonsmoke, LLC. "You can imagine distributors are worried about their livelihoods. Many depend on Eonsmoke as their primary income and we wanted to assure our customers, investors, distributors, and suppliers that we are not pursuing a transaction to sell the company to Phillip Morris or any other suitor."
Source:
http://www.e-cigarette.hk/en/node/2293
