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|}} | equity = US$ 3.01 Billion (2014)〔Altria Group (MO) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest〕 | num_employees = 9,000 (2014) | homepage = (Altria.com ) }} Altria Group, Inc. (previously named Philip Morris Companies Inc.) is one of the world's largest tobacco and cigarette corporations. It is an American multinational corporation based in Henrico County, Virginia, United States of America; it is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. Philip Morris International was spun off in 2008. In addition, Altria Group, Inc. has a 28.7% economic and voting interest in one of the world's largest brewing companies, UK based SABMiller plc, where it has 3 seats on the 11-person board of directors. It is a component of the S&P 500 and was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average until February 19, 2008. The company has its headquarters in an unincorporated area within Henrico County, less than five miles west of the city limits of Richmond and less than ten miles from its downtown Richmond buildings. On January 27, 2003, Philip Morris Companies Inc. changed its name to Altria Group, Inc. On March 30, 2007, a spin out of Kraft Foods Inc subsidiary (publicly traded since 2001) was concluded through distribution of the remaining stake of shares (88.1%) to Altria shareholders. As a result, Altria no longer holds any interest in Kraft Foods. On March 28, 2008, a similar spin out of Philip Morris International was completed with 100% of shares being distributed to Altria shareholders. On January 6, 2009, Altria Group, Inc. completed the acquisition of UST Inc., a smokeless tobacco manufacturer; UST owned Ste Michelle Wine Estates, a wine company. ==History== Altria emerged from Philip Morris. The onset of "rebranding" of Philip Morris Companies to Altria took place in 2003 (Philip Morris would later split, with PM USA remaining Altria's primary and only consistently held asset). Altria was created because Philip Morris wished to emphasize that its business portfolio had come to consist of more than Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International; at the time, it owned an 84% stake in Kraft,〔(Philip Morris completes its rebranding to Altria Group - PR Week )〕 although that business has since been spun off.〔(Coca-Cola vs. Altria: Altria )〕 The name "Altria" is claimed to come from the Latin word for "high" and was part of a trend of companies rebranding to names that previously did not exist, Accenture (previously Arthur Andersen) and Verizon being notable examples, though linguist Steven Pinker suggests that in fact the name is an "egregious example" of phonesthesia - with the company attempting to "switch its image from bad people who sell addictive carcinogens to a place or state marked by altruism and other lofty values". The company's branding consultants, the Wirthlin Group, said: “The name change alternative offers the possibility of masking the negatives associated with the tobacco business,” thus enabling the company to improve its image and raise its profile without sacrificing tobacco profits.〔http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447789/〕 Philip Morris executives thought a name change would insulate the larger corporation and its other operating companies from the political pressures on tobacco.〔 The rebranding took place amidst social, legal and financially troubled circumstances.〔(US TOBACCO giant Philip Morris changed the name of its parent company to Altria last week but the rebranding failed to hide the weak state of its business. )〕 In 2003 Altria was ranked ''Fortune'' number 11, and has steadily declined since. In 2010 Altria Group (MO) ranked at ''Fortune'' number 137, whereas its former asset, Philip Morris International, was ranked 94th. In 2007, Altria began selling all its shares of Philip Morris International to Altria stockholders. The company also began a move to purchase cigar manufacturer John Middleton Co. from Bradford Holdings, Inc., which went into effect in 2008. After Philip Morris International spun off, the foreign Philip Morris companies halted the purchase of tobacco from America, which was a major factor in the closing of a newly renovated plant in North Carolina, an approximately 50% reduction in manufacturing, large-scale layoffs, and induced early retirements. In 2008, Altria officially moved its headquarters to Richmond, Virginia. With a few exceptions, all blue collar, white collar, and executive employees had long been based at one of several Philip Morris buildings in Richmond and the greater Richmond area. The move of white collar operations to Richmond had taken place after Philip Morris sold its downtown offices in New York City a decade earlier. Aside from the Philip Morris/Altria headquarters, some of their other buildings included the Philip Morris Center for Research and Technology in downtown Richmond, their manufacturing center in South Richmond, and the adjacent operations center which began shutting down in 2007-2008, as a result of the loss of demand from PMI member companies. The layoffs beginning in 2007 affected thousands of Altria, Altria Client Services, Philip Morris USA, and contracted employees in Richmond and North Carolina. In 2009, Altria finalized its purchase of UST Inc., whose products included smokeless tobacco (made by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company) and wine (made by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates). This ended a short era of competition between the new Marlboro smokeless tobacco products such as snus, and those produced by UST Inc. In 2015 the company was criticized for a number of active and possible lawsuits with countries such as Uruguay, Australia and Ireland over proposed changes to their cigarette packaging and anti-smoking laws. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Altria」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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