From Altadis' point of view it makes perfect sense - if they're scared about the FDA issue, which they have every right to be, they will need ownership of established brands that had been marketed prior to the FDA's shelf date. They will need as many of those brands as possible, because I think everything is assuming that if the FDA gets the control they want the approval of new brands will slow to an absolute crawl.

I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this, to be honest. There are a lot of mid-level companies that could leverage FDA legislation into an increase in the worth of their business, at least in terms of how Altadis and General/STG value them. And/or I wouldn't be surprised if a few mid-level companies merged to better position themselves against FDA restrictions.