How Bad Is Our Company’s Product? Let Us List the Ways
Tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. is on trial, accused of breaking antitrust laws by abandoning its e-cigarette business at the request of rival Juul Labs Inc. The Marlboro maker’s defense: Our e-cigarettes were lousy.
On the witness stand, current and former Altria executives have recounted how the company threw hundreds of millions of dollars at developing a vaping product, yet failed to come up with anything smokers liked.
According to the executives’ testimonies: Altria’s e-cigarettes leaked. They generated high formaldehyde levels. They lacked the nicotine kick smokers were looking for.
The bad news was so frequent, according to trial testimony this month, that a scientist who updated executives on the company’s e-cigarette products earned the nickname “Dr. Doom.”
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