Urtso Inc. history

Skoal, a wintergreen-flavored moist smokeless tobacco and UST’s other flagship brand, was launched in 1934.

In 1958 it acquired Circus Foods, a candy bar and nut products manufacturer.

W. H. Snyder & Sons, a Pennsylvania cigar company, became a subsidiary of UST in 1965.

In 1969, United States Tobacco acquired Henry, Leonard & Thomas Inc., which manufactured Doctor Grabow Pre-Smoked pipes.

UST added to its pipe business in 1974 by acquiring Mastercraft Pipes, Marxman Imports, Inc., and Manhattan Briar Pipes, Ltd.

Skoal, a wintergreen-flavored moist smokeless tobacco and UST’s other flagship brand, was launched in 1934. Its earnings were $32 million, up 15 percent from the year 1978.

In 1980, UST acquired WPBN-TV and WTOM-TV but five years later sold these broadcast holdings.

In 1981, UST acquired the assets of Havano Cigar Corp. of Tampa, Florida, and transferred its operations to House of Windsor.

Electronic Arts was founded in 1982 by three former managers of Apple Computer: William M. (Trip) Hawkins III, who was a marketing director at Apple and at age 26 became head of the new enterprise; William Bingham (Bing) Gordon, who became the company's director of marketing; and Tom Mott.

EA's first product, shipped in May of 1983, was a software game for the Atari 800 game player, but shortly thereafter the market shifted to the Commodore system.

Since 1984 EA has also acquired marketing rights to software packages developed by smaller outside companies through its Affiliated Labels program.

In 1986 $1.5 million of its $30 million in revenues were from international sales.

In 1987 EA established a manufacturing facility--which became part of what is known as EA Europe--in Langley, England.

In 1989 the video game market was estimated at $3.4 billion in sales, as compared to $250 million for floppy disk computer games.

Nevertheless, a quarter of EA's 1990 sales were from games for Genesis.

Nintendo did not introduce a 16-bit machine, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES), to the United States until June of 1991.

In September of 1992 EA formed a joint venture with Japan's Victor Musical Industries Inc.

A 1994 plan to merge with Broderbund Software, which was later cancelled, would have further expanded EA's involvement in the edutainment field.

A recent Supreme Court ruling that said cigarette compa nies could not be sued for failure to warn was also likely to be a deterrent to litigation against UST, which now included warnings on its products and began labeling packages “Not for sale to minors” in 1995.

“Red Seal Smokeless Tobacco,” Product Alert, August 11, 1997.

Meier, Barry, “Big Tobacco on the Line in Congress,” New York Times, January 5, 1998.

“Democracy 21: President Bush’s Fortune Seeking 100 Investors in White House Portfolio,” US Newswire, March 11, 2001.