Reynolds American to buy Lorillard for $27.4B

Reynolds American agreed on Tuesday to buy its smaller rival, Lorillard, for $27.4 billion, uniting two of the country’s biggest tobacco producers in a bet that bigger is safer in a declining industry.

The complicated deal includes involvement by two other companies, according to the New York Times.

The Imperial Tobacco Group plans to buy several billion dollars’ worth of brands — including Kool, Salem and Winston cigarettes and Blu e-cigarettes — from the combined company for $7.1 billion. An owner of 42 percent of Reynolds, British American Tobacco plans to buy additional share so it maintains the same level of ownership in the combined company.

Read more from the New York Times.