Leading Canadian producer Canopy Growth, agreed to buy multi-state operator Acreage Holdings for $3.4B once the U.S. legalizes REC federally. The deal would create a multi-national juggernaurcompany with businesses on several continents and licenses in more than a dozen states.
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- Acreage stockholders will receive $300M up front, and the balance upon legalization. Until the merger, the companies will continue to operate separately.
Axios - Canopy CEO Bruce Linton anticipates his company generating $1B in revenue this year, but not achieving profitability. ????For more see WW Canada.
bnn bloomberg - Acreage board members include former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, whose stock at current value, would be worth almost $19M when the deal closes.
- Boehner opposed legalization while in office and has never tried marijuana. Acreage CEO Kevin Murphy has praised Boehner for having the “courage” to change his mind.
financial times-paywall, the daily beast - Murphy predicts federal U.S. legalization within 12 months, “18 months on the far side.”
- “We believe that the timing of this deal was likely motivated by the re-introduction of the STATES Act, which both [companies] have said would be sufficient for Canopy to operate in the U.S.,” Cowen analyst Vivian Azer wrote.If passed, the STATES Act, would allow states to determine their own marijuana laws, but it’s not the same thing as full legalization.
- Acreage also said it would acquire vertically integrated Nevada company Deep Roots for $120M.
mjbiz daily - Acreage Board Member William Weld, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, said he would challenge President Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination.
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Vice asks ‘Which countries will legalize next?’ and predicts the U.S. goes REC in 2023.
Quick Hit
- San Francisco vaporizer company PAX Labs is in talks to raise more than $400M at a valuation around $1.3B, The Information reports. (Paywall)
