Source:Richard Craver, WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 7/19/17


It took 12 minutes Wednesday for Reynolds American Inc. to approve ending 142 years of corporate independence.
Shareholders voted 1.18 billion shares — 83.1 percent of its 1.43 billion outstanding shares — to accept $54.5 billion from British American Tobacco PLC in exchange for selling the 57.8 percent of Reynolds shares that BAT doesn’t already own. Just 7.3 million shares voted against the transaction.

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