Tag: NJOY

Altria to Acquire NJOY Holdings

Photo: tatsianamaphoto
Altria Group has entered into an agreement to acquire NJOY Holdings for approximately $2.75 billion in cash. The transaction terms include additional $500 million in cash payments that are contingent upon regulatory outcomes with respect to certain NJOY products.
“We believe we can responsibly accelerate U.S. adult smoker and competitive adult vaper adoption of NJOY Ace in ways that NJOY could not as a standalone company,” said Altria CEO Billy Gifford in a statement. “We believe the strengths of our commercial resources can benefit adult tobacco consumers and expand competition. We are also excited to welcome NJOY’s talented employees to Altria at closing.”
“As a result of this transaction, Altria’s enhanced smoke-free portfolio will include full global ownership of products and technologies across the three largest smoke-free categories and a joint venture with JT Group for the U.S. commercialization of heated tobacco stick products.”
“We are excited to add NJOY’s e-vapor intellectual property as a new platform that we believe we can build on to help more adult smokers transition to smoke-free alternatives,” said Olivier Houpert, Altria’s new chief innovation and product officer.
Altria will hold a conference call at 9 a.m. Eastern Time on March 6, 2023. Access to the live webcast is available at. A replay of the webcast and a transcript will be available on the same website following the event.
In 2022, the U.S. vapor category comprised nearly 14 million U.S. adult tobacco consumers, including 9.5 million exclusive adult vapers, according to Altria. The segment generated approximately $7 billion in U.S. retail sales and represented approximately 15 percent of total estimated equivalized U.S. tobacco volumes and more than 50 percent of total estimated equivalized smoke-free tobacco volumes.
To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the marketing of 23 vapor products and devices. In 2022, NJOY received marketing granted orders for the NJOY Ace device, along with several tobacco-flavored pods. The regulatory agency is still reviewing NJOY’s premarket tobacco product applications for several NJOY menthol-flavored e-vapor products.
Altria said it had multiple sources of funding for the deal, including cash from a $2.7 billion agreement with Philip Morris International last year for the IQOS Tobacco Heating System.
The NJOY deal follows an announcement by Altria that it would exchange its entire minority investment in embattled Juul Labs for a nonexclusive global license for certain of Juul’s heated tobacco intellectual property.
March 6, 2023
Altria in Talks to Buy Njoy

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
Altria Group is in advanced talks to buy e-cigarette startup Njoy Holdings for at least $2.75 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter, according to Reuters.
The Njoy deal could be announced as soon as this week, though the talks could still fall through, according to the report.
The proposed deal includes an additional $500 million earnout if regulatory milestones are met.
The potential deal follows Altria’s decision last year to be released from its noncompete deal with Juul Labs almost four years after buying a 35 percent stake in the company. Altria was planning to divest its stake in Juul. As of Dec. 31, Altria valued the stake at $250 million.
It was reported in July that Njoy had hired bankers for a possible sale of the company. The privately held firm is likely to be valued at up to $5 billion.
Njoy has a roughly 2 percent of the U.S. vape market by volume, according to Jefferies, Juul, by contrast, accounts for around a quarter of American vapor product sales.
Unlike Juul, however, Njoy is one of the few vape brands that have permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to continue to sell its products. Juul is waiting to hear whether the FDA will allow its e-cigarettes to remain on the market.
In June 2022, the agency ordered Juul to remove its products from the market after finding that premarket tobacco product application failed to prove they would “appropriate for the protection of public health.
The FDA agreed to take another look at Juul’s application after the company appealed the marketing denial order in court. The company can continue selling its products at least until the agency makes a final decision.
Altria is keen to supplement its income from combustible products with earnings from smoking alternatives, such as e-cigarettes.
Its cigarette sales volumes fell 9.5 percent last year as high gasoline prices and general inflation pinched smokers’ disposable income.
February 28, 2023
NJOY Rumored to be Readying for Potential Sale
E-cigarette maker NJOY Holdings Inc has hired bankers for a possible sale of the company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report added the privately held NJOY is likely to be valued at up to $5 billion, according to the sources who cautioned the process was still at an early stage and there was no guarantee a deal would materialize.
If NJOY does not receive a high enough valuation, the company could raise money and stay private, potentially paving the way for a future initial public offering, the Wall Street Journal said.
The e-cigarette maker is simultaneously exploring a new fundraising round and aims to raise between $300 million and $500 million, the report added.
NJOY has two devices that have received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including its Ace device and Daily disposables.
Late June, Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott wrote in a note that Altria could try to buy privately owned NJOY, which “has already succeeded with its PMTA process applications.”
Rival Juul Labs Inc said on Friday it was in the early stages of exploring several options, including financing alternatives, as the company deals with lawsuits and a probable ban on sales of its e-cigarettes by U.S. health regulators.
NJOY and Mudrick Capital Management, a majority owner of the company, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
July 20, 2022
Marketing Approvals for NJOY ‘Daily’ Vapes
Photo: NJOY
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the premarket tobacco product applications (PMTA) for NJOY’s Daily Rich Tobacco 4.5% and NJOY Daily Extra Rich Tobacco 6%.
“It should be noted that our determination that the marketing of these products is APPH [appropriate for the protection of public health] is based in part on the submitted microbial stability data,” the agency wrote in its marketing granted order (MGO).
The designation does not mean the products are safe and they are not “FDA approved,” the agency said, but the MGOs allows the NJOY to legally market the authorized products in the United States.
While approving NJOY’s Daily Rich Tobacco 4.5% and NJOY Daily Extra Rich Tobacco 6%, the FDA denied authorization for multiple other Daily e-cigarette products. These are presumed for products with nontobacco flavors. Any of those products that remain on the market must be removed or risk FDA enforcement, the agency said. Applications for two menthol-flavored Daily products remain under FDA review.
Additionally, the authorization imposes marketing restrictions on the company to greatly reduce the potential for youth exposure to advertising for these products. The FDA said it will closely monitor how these products are marketed and will act as necessary if the company fails to comply with any applicable statutory or regulatory requirements, or if there is a notable increase in the number of non-smokers—including youth—using these products.
On April 26, the FDA authorized four NJOY Ace products through the PMTA pathway.
June 10, 2022
FDA Authorizes Several NJOY Products

Photo: NJOY
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 26 authorized four NJOY products through the premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) pathway. The FDA issued marketing granted orders to NJOY for its Ace closed e-cigarette device and three accompanying tobacco-flavored e-liquid pods—NJOY Ace Pod Classic Tobacco 2.4 percent, NJOY Ace Pod Classic Tobacco 5 percent and NJOY Ace Pod Rich Tobacco 5 percent.
The decision is significant because, unlike previous marketing orders—the FDA earlier authorized varieties of BAT’s Vuse Solo brand and Japan Tobacco International’s Logic e-cigarette—this one covers a product with a decent market share. While Vuse overall is a bestseller, the variety that received marketing approval in October 2021 is based on outdated technology and used by only a few people.
According to Nielsen and analyst reports, which measure financial data typically from convenience stores (and not vape shops), NJOY is the third-largest vape manufacturer in the United States, holding a little more than 3 percent of the market.
The most recent authorization is also the first for a brand not owned by a major tobacco firm.
“Looking at the situation with rose-colored glasses, an independent pioneer like NJOY getting two nicotine vaping products through the convoluted FDA authorization process is something to celebrate,” Greg Conley, the president of the American Vaping Association, told Filter. “Unlike the only two other companies with authorizations, NJOY could not subsidize their applications with cigarette sales, so they were at a disadvantage from the start.”
While authorizing NJOY Ace tobacco-flavored pods, the FDA rejected other Ace e-cigarette products. Applications for two menthol-flavored Ace e-liquid pods remain under FDA review.
No flavored product has yet received FDA authorization, even though tobacco harm reduction advocates insist flavors are necessary to lure smokers away from combustible cigarettes. “The FDA’s current policy of denying all flavors and deferring action on menthol applications is evidence of just how broken the agency is,” Conley told Filter. “The FDA still has not accepted that millions of adult vapers will not be switching to tobacco flavors anytime in the future.”
Under the PMTA pathway, the applicant must demonstrate to the FDA that marketing of the new tobacco product would be appropriate for the protection of the public health, the FDA explained in a statement. According to the agency, the authorized NJOY products were found to meet this standard because chemical testing was sufficient to determine that overall harmful and potentially harmful constituent (HPHC) levels in the aerosol of these products is lower than in combusted cigarette smoke.
“Further, data provided by the applicant demonstrated that participants who had used only the authorized NJOY Ace products had lower levels of exposure to HPHCs compared to the dual users of the new products and combusted cigarettes,” the FDA wrote. “Therefore, these products have the potential to benefit adult smokers who switch completely or significantly reduce their cigarette consumption.”
April 27, 2022
Ex-Facebook president invests in e-cigarettes
A group including Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Parker is investing $75 million is NJOY, a leading manufacturer of e-cigarettes, reports The Wall Street Journal. Parker co-founded the music-sharing site Napster, was the first president of Facebook and has been a big donor to cancer research.
NJOY accounted for 35.6 percent of the U.S. cigarette market in U.S. convenience stores in the four weeks ended May 11, according to Wells Fargo Securities. NJOY Kings’ brand more closely resembles regular cigarettes than do some competing products. The company has been advertising on TV and attracted celebrity endorsers such as musicians Courtney Love and Bruno Mars.
In March, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona joined NJOY’s board, saying it is important to explore alternatives to traditional cigarettes because the adult smoking rate has remained stuck at around 20 percent of the population.
E-cigarettes are believed to be less harmful than traditional cigarettes because they don’t rely on combustion However, the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers in 2009 the new technology could pose its own health risks and required further study. The long-term impact of inhaling e-cigarette vapor, which contains substances such as propylene glycol, has yet to be determined. The agency is planning regulation that would treat e-cigarettes as tobacco products.
Industry experts says U.S. retail sales of e-cigarettes could reach $1 billion this year—just 1 percent of the country’s cigarette market but twice that of 2012.
June 10, 2013
Pop star invests in NJOY
Music star and 13-time Grammy Award nominee Bruno Mars has joined NJOY as an investor. While the terms of the investment were not disclosed, Mars stated that he often uses NJOY’s King product in place of traditional cigarettes and is convinced that it is a revolutionary alternative to cigarettes.
“I’ve been using NJOY Kings instead of cigarettes these days and I’m sticking to it,” said Mars. “I believe in the product and the company’s mission.”
“Bruno Mars is an exciting addition to NJOY and we are pleased to have him on board,” said Craig Weiss, CEO of NJOY. “Adding Bruno to our team expands our reach, raising further awareness of the NJOY brand and our company mission to obsolete cigarettes.”
NJOY King was developed by an award-winning master tobacco flavorist. With a look, feel and flavor that closely mimics a traditional cigarette, it has become the bestselling e-cigarette in the United States.
May 31, 2013