Altria said it started to cut an undisclosed number of jobs due to the economic turmoil.
On March 28th, 2008 Philip Morris International and Altria split, now trading publically as two separate unaffiliated entities. The drop in share price reflects the change in size of Altrias portfolio of companies.
Atria announced in August 2007 it would cut as many as 400 jobs when it moved its headquarters out of New York. In March 2008, the company spun off Philip Morris International. The cuts were designed to save $250 million annually.
Higher-than-expected costs of restructuring and exiting recently spun Kraft foods continues to take its toll on Altria's net earnings. Although quarterly earnings rose compared to last year's, after deduction of one-time costs, net profit drops 18%.
Altria continues restructuring, announcing plans to close a North Carolina plant by 2010 and replace it with facilities in Europe. As weakening US growth pushes Altria to focus overseas, excitement grows about the "liberation" of Altria's exported cigarettes from the restrictions of US production.
Edit Metric
