Editing R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (section)

===RJR Nabisco===
{{Main|RJR Nabisco}}
R. J. Reynolds Industries merged with [[Nabisco|Nabisco Brands]] in 1985, and the name changed to [[RJR Nabisco]] in August 1986.<ref name=Sequence /> In 1987, a [[bidding]] war ensued between several financial firms to acquire RJR Nabisco. Finally, the [[private equity]] takeover firm [[Kohlberg Kravis Roberts|Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts & Co]] (commonly referred to as KKR) was responsible for the 1988 [[leveraged buyout]] of RJR Nabisco. This was documented in several articles in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' by [[Bryan Burrough]] and [[John Helyar]]. These articles were later used as the basis of a bestselling book, ''[[Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco]]'',<ref>{{cite book |title=Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco |last=Burrough |first=Bryan |author-link=Bryan Burrough |author2=John Helyar |year=2003 |publisher=HarperCollins |location=New York |isbn=0-06-165554-6 |pages=592 |url=https://archive.org/details/barbariansatgate00burr_0 |url-access=registration |quote=barbarians at the gate. |access-date=27 June 2010}}</ref> and then into a [[Barbarians at the Gate (film)|television movie]]. As a result, in February 1989, RJR Nabisco paid executive [[F. Ross Johnson]] US$53,800,000 as part of a [[golden handshake]] clause, the largest such deal in history at the time,<ref>{{cite news|title=The high cost of parting ways with CEOs |work=CBC News |date=9 June 2009 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-high-cost-of-parting-ways-with-ceos-1.823138 |access-date=27 June 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101112001838/http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/06/09/f-executive-compensation-severance-packages.html |archive-date=November 12, 2010}}</ref> as severance compensation for his acceptance of the KKR takeover. He used the money to open his own investment firm, RJM Group, Inc.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sons mind moguls' money |author=Mike Billips |newspaper=Atlanta Business Chronicle |date= 24 July 1998 |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/1998/07/27/story3.html |access-date=27 June 2010}}</ref> In 1999 RJR Nabisco spun off R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, which began trading on June 15 as R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc., and a year later announced it would buy Nabisco Group Holdings Inc., the company that had been RJR Nabisco. This followed the sale of Nabisco Holdings Group to [[Philip Morris USA|Philip Morris]].<ref name="Sequence" />