Name: How Juul Went From $38 Billion Vaping Startup to Near-Bankrupt: What Went Wrong
Uploaded: 2023-04-19T18:03:00Z
Duration: 7 min 12 s
Description: Juul sparked a vaping craze when it launched, making it one of the most valuable startups in 2018. Five years later, its value has gone up in smoke. WSJ explains Juul’s collapse and what’s next for the e-cigarette company. Illustration: Nayon Cho

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Juul sparked a vaping craze when it launched, making it one of the most valuable startups in 2018. Five years later, its value has gone up in smoke. WSJ explains Juul’s collapse and what’s next for the e-cigarette company. Illustration: Nayon Cho

https://m.wsj.net/video/20240102/642e1d6a-ac19-43a4-ba21-32649dffd2e4/4/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

How Juul Went From $38 Billion Vaping Startup to Near-Bankrupt: What Went Wrong 

Narrator: This little e-cigarette made Juul Labs one of the most valuable startups in Silicon Valley in 2018. At its peak, the company was worth $38 billion. Juul's popularity swelled as U.S. cigarette sales fell. It even spawned a verb, juuling.

And it had upended the entire tobacco industry. Today its future is in doubt.

Narrator: Juul has narrowly escaped bankruptcy, laid off nearly 3/4 of its workers, and one of its largest shareholders divested its 35% stake. Now it's in limbo, waiting to see if it can continue selling its products. So what went wrong? The first Juul vaporizer was released in 2015. Its stated mission, eliminate traditional cigarettes. Some early reviews were positive.

Reporter: The Juul from Pax might be the best designed e-cigarette out there.

Narrator: Following its release, e-cigarette use jumped among teens while the use of other tobacco products declined, thanks largely to the popularity of Juul.

It had this cool, sort of sleek device that looked like a USB charger. It was unlike anything that had come before it. It was sort of like the Apple of e-cigarettes.

Narrator: Juul's early ad campaign in 2015 featured young people puffing and partying and flavors like mint and mango appealed to younger users.

I've never been exposed to tobacco. Why would I try it? But since I was exposed to fruit, obviously, and mango and mint that I just thought it was okay.

Narrator: Juul was the e-cigarette brand of choice.

In 2018, Juul was dominating the e-cigarette market. Its sales were soaring and it was the number one e-cigarette brand.

Narrator: But in April of that year, the FDA started taking a closer look at the product's appeal to teens. Facing that probe and mounting criticism, Juul said it would stop selling flavored refill pods in an effort to stem underage use.

As a mom of teenagers, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

The least they could do.

Narrator: Then in December, despite these concerns, the biggest tobacco company in the U.S., Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, took a 35% stake in the startup. Altria saw smokers switching to vaping and its own e-cigarettes couldn't match Juul's popularity. It paid $12.8 billion for its stake, valuing Juul at $38 billion. But the deal only increased regulatory scrutiny on the company.

We are in the midst of a youth vaping epidemic.

Narrator: Regulators started looking at Altria's investment and the FDA, the Federal Trade Commission, and attorneys general across the country were all still investigating Juul's marketing practices.

And so we have a responsibility as the chief law enforcement officer in the state of New York to protect young people and that's what we are doing with this litigation.

Narrator: As the U.S. cracked down on the e-cigarette industry and Juul voluntarily stopped most of its marketing, Juul's sales and market share fell. In 2021, Juul reported a net loss of $259 million and an 11% decline in sales, according to a disclosure the company made to employees. Juul said it was working to regain the public's trust. Then in June, 2022, the FDA dealt Juul a major blow.

Juul electronic cigarettes can no longer be sold in the U.S.

Narrator: The agency ordered Juul to pull its products off of U.S. shelves, but not for alleged marketing to teens. According to FDA documents viewed by the Wall Street Journal, Juul hadn't sufficiently answered the agency's questions about whether Juul's products might expose users to chemicals that could pose a health risk.

Juul immediately appealed and the FDA issued a stay on the order, which means that Juul's products were allowed to remain on the market, pending an appeal.

Narrator: In July, the FDA said it would allow Juul to continue selling products in the U.S., its most important market. By this point, underage vaping had fallen and Juul was no longer the number one e-cigarette brand among teens. It wasn't even in the top 10. Juul was soon facing bankruptcy.

It was unclear whether Juul's products were gonna be able to remain on the market or would have to be pulled off. And because its future was unclear, Juul suddenly was unable to take out traditional loans or get investments that would help cover the cost of its legal liabilities. And some of these lawsuits were scheduled to come up soon for trial.

Narrator: In November, Juul said it had secured financing to avoid bankruptcy. Its saviors came in the form of Hyatt Hotel's heir Nick Pritzker and California investor Riaz Valani.

These two men basically gave Juul a lifeline. They gave Juul a cash infusion to help Juul stay afloat and cover some of these legal settlements.

Narrator: Juul announced plans to lay off a third of its global staff, leaving the company with a fraction of the 3,000 workers it had had in 2019 and a month later, Pritzker and Valani helped Juul make another big step. The company agreed to pay $1.7 billion in a broad legal settlement covering more than 5,000 lawsuits over marketing to teens. Juul denied wrongdoing.

It really helped clarify Juul's future. With those lawsuits hanging over it, its future had been somewhat in doubt, and so it was able to resolve the bulk of the legal liability that it faced.

Narrator: Fast-forward to March, 2023, when Altria divested its minority stake in Juul at a loss of at least $12.5 billion.

The fact that Altria was a big shareholder in Juul meant that Juul did not have complete freedom to enter into new investment agreements with other parties. Juul has complete freedom to either, you know, come up with distribution agreements, new investment agreements, or sell the company outright to someone else.

Narrator: On April 12th, Juul agreed to pay $462 million to settle lawsuits filed by six states and the District of Columbia. Five days later, it settled its last pending lawsuit.

The declining health and wellbeing of millions of teens and young adults will not be a footnote in Juul's business plans.

Narrator: Today, Juul's future is uncertain.

The big question remains, what is the FDA going to say and decide about whether its products can remain on the market? If its products do have to come off the market, it would need a lifeline of some sort to keep going.