R.J. Reynolds
US company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (RJR) , based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is the fourth-largest tobacco firm in the global tobacco industry, and the second-largest U.S. firm (behind Philip Morris). During the 1980s and 1990s, the firm was part of a corporation called RJR Nabisco, but Nabisco was spun out of RJR Nabisco in 1999, in part due to pressure from tobacco-related lawsuits.
Their most well-known brand is Camel cigarettes, which was criticized for its use of the Joe Camel character, allegedly to target juveniles. Winston, Salem, and Doral are also R.J. Reynolds brands.
In February 1989 RJR Nabisco paid executive F. Ross Johnson $53,800,000 USD as part of a Golden handshake clause. This is listed by Guinness World Records as the largest Golden handshake ever.
In October 2002 the European Union accused R. J. Reynolds of selling black market cigarettes to drug traffickers and mobsters from Italy, Russia, Colombia and the Balkans.
On July 30, 2004, R.J. Reynolds merged with the U.S. operations of Brown & Williamson. A new publicly traded parent company, Reynolds American Inc., was also established as part of the transaction.
RJR is publicly traded under the NYSE symbol "RJR".
