(2 of 2)
Hog-tied by a shrinking U.S. market, the Marlboro Man is setting his sights on China. Altria Group's Philip Morris International will soon produce the world's best-selling cigarette in the world's largest tobacco market. China's more than 300 million smokers consumed 1.75 trillion cigarettes last year, but foreign sales accounted for only about 5% of these because of government restrictions. The venture with Fujian province's Longyan Cigarette Factory will make Marlboros widely available in China. But Big Tobacco's China dreams have gone up in smoke before. In 1986 R.J. Reynolds formed a $31 million joint venture to make Camels; 13 years later, the American partner bailed out by selling to Japan Tobacco. JT itself gave up on the venture when its contract expired this month, selling its stake to Chinese partners for a measly $18 million. The Marlboro Man will have to be faster on his feet if he wants to grab this bull by the horns. --By Neil Gough/Beijing
"If something is not done about China, it doesn't matter whether [Cambodia is] in the WTO or not." --Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, after Cambodia's Parliament ratified its accession to the WTO, with the expiration of global quotas on textiles and apparel scheduled for Jan. 1
Source: New York Times
>>E-Discovery
ATTN: Smoking gun! According to a recent survey, 1 in 5 U.S. companies has had employee e-mails subpoenaed in the course of a lawsuit or regulatory investigation so far this year. The cost of gathering such electronic data: $700 million--expected to grow to $1.8 billion in 2006. This promises to be a boon for the e-mail archivers--a niche industry that has emerged to help companies cope by shifting from the costly process of sorting through unorganized data stored on backup tapes to proactive email archiving with speedy search engines. In August, Veritas Software paid $225 million for e-mail archiver KVS, while fellow archiver Zantaz snapped up Steelpoint Technologies; both acquired companies provide e-discovery services to many a blue-chip client. E-mail archiver iLumin has also just created a discovery-services unit, which has attracted four of the five largest banks, with a filter that allows messages with questionable content to be quarantined for review.
CORRECTION Pairs Trading In last month's investing column, Seth Weiss's organization was misidentified. The correct firm is Green Pairs, an independent stock-market-research company that provides a Web-based tool for investors seeking to identify and trade pairs of stocks. The website is www.greenpairs.com
11% DECREASE IN MONTHLY CEO TURNOVER, FROM 54 IN JULY TO A NEAR RECORD LOW OF 48 IN AUGUST