You guys have stated that smoking cigarettes costs $300-$400 a month, while e-cigs cost about $40 (or some other much lower amount). Hank asked the question of why big tobacco is investing in e-cigs if they want them gone. Here's the scenario I see playing out:

1. Big tobacco invests in e-cig technology to make some profit of the more readily available crap brands they put in every convenience store.

2. The FDA, under heavy pressure from big pharma and big tobacco, declares e-cigs unsafe, and they are removed from the market.

3. Big tobacco is once again the only player, so they raise the price of cigarettes again. The government, in turn, raises taxes on cigarettes again, and big pharma starts taking in the profits on Chantix, etc. Everyone is happy (except smokers and the people who hate their second hand smoke, which pretty much includes everybody NOT profiting).

Pretty simple: if your market is suffering due to a cheaper, cleaner alternative, what do you, as big tobacco, do? You get into the competing market, to make whatever profit you can while hiding your true agenda, then you go back to selling only the product that makes you 90% more profit when the competing product is suddenly and shockingly identified as a leading cause of cancer.

...at least that's my conspiracy theory.