Marijuana Business Magazine February 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | February 2019 100 Company News | U.S. & Canada Recent deals, acquisitions and other announcements from North American cannabis companies By Omar Sacirbey U.S. DEVELOPMENTS GTI Expands in Nevada With $290 Million Purchase Green Thumb Industries , a multistate marijuana firm, agreed to purchase a Nevada-based, vertically integrated cannabis company, Integral Associates , in a stock and cash deal valued at about $290 million. Integral Associ- ates founder and CEO Armen Yemenidjian also will join GTI’s leadership team. The acquisition includes: • Three retail stores operating under the name Essence Cannabis Dispensary. • Desert Grown Farms, a 54,000-square-foot culti- vation and processing facility. • Cannabiotix NV, a 41,000-square-foot cultivation and processing facility. GTI entered Nevada in 2016 and currently operates two recreational cannabis stores—Rise Spanish Springs and Rise Carson City—along with a Carson City cultivation and processing facility. Acreage Enters Oregon Via $160 Million Acquisition Acreage Holdings inked a $160 million deal to acquire Form Factory , a Portland, Ore- gon-based marijuana-infused edi- bles manufacturer and distributor. The all-stock deal will boost Acreage’s footprint from 18 to 19 states and position the New York-based firm as a multistate consumer packaged goods business. Ascend Raises $40 Million Boston-based cannabis company Ascend Wellness closed a $40 million funding round—capital the firm plans to use to build out its multistate footprint. Poseidon Asset Management , Salveo Capital , JM10 Partners and Shire Capital Advisors led the funding. Ascend has licenses in three states: Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. Marijuana Giant Makes $30 Million CBD Wager Massachusetts-based MariMed , a multistate cannabis operator, is entering the hemp-derived CBD sector with a $30 million investment in Kentucky- based GenCanna . The company contracts farmers to grow hemp to its specifications and has processing facilities to turn the plant into CBD extracts, concentrates, isolates and other products. GenCanna, which will become MariMed’s supplier of hemp-derived CBD, plans to use the money to expand its cultivation and processing operations. The two companies will create CBD products and brands together. MariMed also will create a business unit focused on CBD consumer products and distribute hemp-derived CBD products. The CBD products will not be sold in MariMed’s cannabis dispensaries. Treez Turns Over New Leaf Oakland, California-based Treez , an enterprise software system for retailers, growers and manufacturers, closed its acquisition of Mister Kraken , a Washington state-based traceability software provider. Treez is rebranding the Mr. Kraken product as Grow Treez . Eaze Expansion San Francisco-based tech company Eaze launched an online marketplace, Eaze Wellness , to ship CBD products to 41 states across the U.S. and the District of Columbia. This marks the company’s first expan- sion outside California. Eaze Wellness launched with about 100 different products from roughly 20 brands and will include CBD offerings for pets. Arizona MJ Consulting Firm Acquired One of the longest-operating cannabis consulting firms in Arizona, Dispensary Permits , was acquired by Item 9 Labs  for $1.5 million and 3 million shares of stock. The agreement includes ownership of websites dispensarypermits.com and dispensarytemplates.com , along with all the intellectual property held by Scottsdale-based Dispensary Permits and its owner, Sara Gullickson. Gullickson also was tapped by Item 9 to serve as the company’s CEO for at least the next three years. Item 9, based in Phoenix, already owns and oper- ates a 50-acre medical marijuana cultivation site.