Philip Morris International's $16 billion bid for smaller rival Swedish Match highlights the urgency among cigarette makers to tap new and potentially less harmful alternatives as regulation and health concerns snuff out traditional smokes.
Marlboro maker Philip Morris agreed on Wednesday to buy Swedish Match, one of the world's biggest makers of oral nicotine products. These include "snus" — a sucked tobacco product the firm says is less harmful than smoking — as well as Zyn nicotine pouches, which are used the same way and are tobacco-free.
Both are niche products, but are growing, with Swedish Match's almost 50% share of the global tobacco-free oral nicotine market putting it ahead of both British American Tobacco and Altria Group in that category.