Big Tobacco is still Big Tobacco

After 40+ years of declining cigarette sales and graphic public health warnings about the damage that smoking causes, it might be easy to think of big tobacco as a frail industry on its deathbed — it's anything but. In fact, even in the wake of falling sales, Altria has eked out record earnings over the last decade. The $12-13bn that it has presumably lost on the Juul deal is an enormous sum... but it's one that Altria can — quite easily — afford. It's racked up operating income of more than $10bn for the last 3 years in a row. Big tobacco is still just that... big.