From Philip Morris to Altria

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Headquartered in New York, Altria Group, Inc., formerly Philip Morris Companies Inc., was a holding company and the parent company of wholly owned subsidiaries Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA), Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) and its majority-owned (84.2%) subsidiary, Kraft Foods Inc. (Kraft)...

PM opened its London tobacco store in 1847 and by 1854 started making its own cigarettes. A new firm owned by American shareholders acquired the US Philip Morris Company and incorporated it in Virginia under the name Philip Morris & Co. Ltd...

PM USA manufactured, marketed and sold cigarettes in the United States and its territories and exported tobacco products from the United States. PM USA's major brands were Marlboro, Virginia Slims and Parliament...

The tussle between anti smoking campaigners and cigarette companies intensified in the 1990s. In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of USA classified "second-hand" smoke as a health hazard that caused 3,000 non-smokers to die from lung cancer each year...

In the early 2000s, litigation was the biggest concern for tobacco industry. Beyond anti-smoking campaigns and state legislations, the growing number of individual cases had become a cause for worry...

Bible clearly resented Philip Morris' pariah status. "The company is filled with decent, hard-working people, no different from any other. We go to church. Our children go to school," he said. "We need to do more to restore self-pride amongst our employees...and to have our place at the table like any corporation."...

As U.S. markets shrank, overseas markets became the critical avenue for growth. PM had only a 14% share outside the U.S., where higher percentages of people smoked, where nonsmokers were far more tolerant of the habit, where opposition was less organized, and where consumers were less litigious...

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