Altria Group announced on Jan. 30 that it reduced its investment value in Juul Labs to around $12 billion, almost 70 percent less than the $38 billion valuation that Altria bought into in December 2018.
Last October, Altria wrote down its Juul Labs stake by $4.5 billion followed by the $4.1 billion write down just announced.
“I’m highly disappointed in the performance of our Juul investment,” said Altria CEO Howard Willard.
According to Altria, the devaluation was driven by issues such as lawsuits, investigations into Juul’s marketing practices, flavored vapor product bans and a vaping health crisis.
While Altria will no longer provide marketing and retail distribution for Juul Labs as originally agreed, it will now focus on helping Juul Labs with regulatory affairs, including the submission of its products for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.