Tatum v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

NORWOOD CARLTON TILLEY JR., Senior District Judge.

This case involves the unwinding of what has been described as “one of the biggest mergers and most fought-over leveraged buyouts of the 1980’s, a battle that became a symbol of the decade’s excesses” — the 1986 merger of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Nabisco. Ironically, the merger was “intended to enhance the tobacco company’s increasingly negative image.” 1 Fourteen years later, R.J. Reynolds and Nabisco separated because of the negative impact of tobacco litigation on Nabisco’s stock prices. The subject of this litigation is…