British American Tobacco will take over Reynolds American Inc. to create the world's largest publicly traded tobacco company that would seek to capitalize on growing demand for electronic cigarettes in the U.S. and traditional ones in developing countries. Founded in 1902, it sold 663 billion cigarettes in more than 200 countries in 2015, generating revenue of 13.1 billion pounds ($16 billion). The company's links with British American Tobacco date to 2004, when R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. merged with BAT's Brown & Williamson unit, creating Reynolds American. The planned merger would create a company likely to overtake Philip Morris International Inc. as the world's biggest publicly traded tobacco company. But China's National Tobacco Corp. is bigger than BAT and Reynolds both combined, Euromonitor International data showed.

Source: ABC News January 17, 2017 09:58 UTC