Altria invests $2.75 billion in rival startup NJOY after exiting Juul

Days after exiting its stake in troubled electronic cigarette maker Juul, Altria announced a $2.75 billion investment in rival electronic cigarette startup NJOY.

The Marlboro maker gets full ownership of NJOY's e-vapor product portfolio, the Virginia company said Monday, including its pod-based e-vapor product ACE.

"We believe we can responsibly accelerate U.S. adult smoker and competitive adult vaper adoption of NJOY ACE in ways that NJOY could not as a standalone company," Altria CEO Billy Gifford said in a statement.