Altria and Philip Morris International (PMI) have announced that they have ended merger discussions, according to a company press release.

Howard Willard, Altria’s chairman and CEO, said in the statement, “While we believed the creation of a new merged company had the potential to create incremental revenue and cost synergies, we could not reach agreement.”
In the statement, Willard said that the companies look forward to continuing their joint commercialisation of IQOS in the US under its existing agreement. IQOS, which is a heated tobacco product, was approved for sale in the US with premarket authorisation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) April 2019.
In a separate announcement, the company said that K.C. Crosthwaite, senior vice president, chief strategy and growth officer of Altria would be stepping down from his position to join Juul Labs, where Crosthwaite would assume the position of CEO, according to the press release. In response, Chairman and CEO, Howard Willard said, “K.C. is a proven industry leader who understands the importance of responsible business practices. This decision by Juul recognises that this is a critical time for the company. I believe K.C.’s experience, discipline and dedication to making harm reduction an industry-wide reality will help Juul achieve its mission, while also urgently confronting and reversing underage use of vapor products.”