Altria news for Tuesday includes MO stock heading higher on talk of a possible merger with Philip Morris (NYSE:PM).
Altria (NYSE:MO) says it is considering a merger with Phillip Morris in a recent news release. However, the company doesn’t have much to say about the details of such a deal. What it does say is that this would be an “all-stock, merger of equals.”
After this there isn’t much in the way of Altria news. The company just goes on to list out the basic precautionary statements. That includes that there may be no deal, and that even if there is one the transaction may not reach completion. It also notes that it won’t be providing further updates unless, or until, it needs to.
Unfortunately, Philip Morris doesn’t talk about any further details about a the Altria news in its own press release. Instead, it just put out a statement that mirrors the one made by Altria in its own news release.
There are a few things about this Altria news that are worth pointing out. The first is that this merger would bring these two companies back together. They were one entity before a split occurred back in 2008.
It’s also worth mentioning that this merger makes sense from a financial standpoint. The tobacco industry has been struggling of late and it makes sense that Altria and Philip Morris would want to ease their troubles by merging back together.
MO stock was up as much as 10% this morning, but is now down slightly and PMI stock was down 3% as of Tuesday morning.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
