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Online cannabis marketplace Leafly to go public

by The Real Dirt | Aug 10, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis News, Culture, Industry News

In a historic year for Washington companies going public, Seattle-based Leafly, an online cannabis marketplace, will push the 2021 total even higher.

The company announced Monday it will go public through a special merger with New York-based Merida Merger Corp (Nasdaq: MCMJ). The transaction is expected to value Leafly at $385 million and add approximately $161 million of additional proceeds to the company.

The combined company will adopt Leafly’s name, and is expected to trade on Nasdaq with the ticker symbol “LFLY.” The company said it will list its shares once the merger is complete, likely sometime this fall.

According to PitchBook, 15 companies in Washington have gone public in 2021 so far, five more than last year’s total, and the most the state has seen in the last five years.

“Online retail shopping is in our DNA,” said Yoko Miyashita, CEO of Leafly, in an interview. “What you see is … this realization from consumers that say ‘Oh, (cannabis) is like any other retail product I can order online.”

Leafly earned $36 million in revenue last year, up from $30 million in 2019, according to its investor presentation. This year, revenue is expected to increase to $43 million, and grow roughly 50% annually through 2024.

Still, the company does not expect to be profitable until 2024, predicting it will lose at least $15 million in net income from 2021 to 2023.

The company makes money mostly through subscription fees it charges cannabis retailers who list their menus on Leafly’s platform. Customers place orders with retailers through the online site, but still have to go to the cannabis shop in person to pick up their product. Leafly does not take a commission from each transaction but does make money off ad sales from retailers.

The company said it has 4,600 paying retail subscribers, with approximately 55% of North American retail cannabis licensees on its platform and 125 million annual visitors.

Miyashita said cannabis retailers are “constrained” in their ability to advertise on major social media networks because of federal prohibition laws. Leafly’s platform, giving retailers and consumers an opportunity to reach each other, is “huge,” she said. “We have one of the largest audiences in cannabis.”

Read Full Story on Seattle Times

Canopy Growth execs earn raises, bonuses after cannabis giant loses CA$1.7 billion

by The Real Dirt | Aug 4, 2021 | Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis News, Industry News

canopy growth executives received huge bonuses despite losing CA $1.7 billion in 2020.

Executives for cannabis producer Canopy Growth received more than 4 million Canadian dollars ($3.2 million) in cash bonuses after making “solid progress in the year,” according to a regulatory filing, even as the company lost CA$1.7 billion and laid off hundreds of workers.

The Smiths Falls, Ontario-based company disclosed the executive compensation figures for fiscal year 2021 in a proxy statement sent ahead of its annual general meeting, scheduled for Sept. 14 via webcast.

The executives’ compensation packages consist of salary as well as bonuses awarded as part of the company’s short- and long-term incentive plans. For fiscal 2021, which ended March 31, the board approved short-term incentive plan bonuses totaling CA$4 million for five of the company’s top executives.

The company’s long-term incentive-plan (LTI) bonuses, typically granted annually in March, were awarded June 9, 2021. The LTI bonuses were not reported in the total compensation table because they were issued after the fiscal year ended.

“On a go forward basis, we have determined to fix the regular timing of our annual LTI grants to occur in June of each year, beginning in Fiscal 2022,” the proxy noted.

“As such, no LTI awards were granted in Fiscal 2021, with the prior LTI grants having been made in late March 2020 at the end of Fiscal 2020.”

In an emailed statement, a company spokesperson told MJBizDaily that “Canopy Growth’s executive compensation supports our strategy of attracting and retaining top talent that is necessary to support the company’s ambitious growth plans and is structured to ensure close alignment between the interest of shareholders and leadership.”

Bonuses

The company uses four performance measures related to corporate objectives to help guide short-term bonus payouts where executives earn an annual cash bonus.

Free cash flow has the heaviest weighting (50%) among the performance measures, followed by net revenue (20%), adjusted EBITDA (20%) and individualized objectives (10%).

The company failed to meet its fiscal 2021 goals for net revenue and adjusted EBITDA, but the goals for free cash flow and individualized objectives were achieved.

According to the proxy, Canopy aimed for net revenue of $455 million but came in at $414 million.

Free cash flow was negative $478 million, or half the shortfall the company anticipated.

Adjusted EBITDA, which serves as a measure of profitability, came in at negative $258 million, a slightly worse performance compared with the company’s objective of negative $246 million.

Canopy’s short-term cash bonuses amounted to:

CA$2.2 million for David Klein, CEO.
CA$579,000 for Mike Lee, chief financial officer.
CA$659,000 for Rade Kovacevic, president and chief product officer.
CA$360,000 for Julious Grant, chief commercial officer.
CA$351,000 for Phil Shaer, chief legal officer.

Read Full Story on MJ Biz Daily

Weedmaps joins Nasdaq with $579 million infusion

by The Real Dirt | Jun 17, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Cannabis News, Industry News, Legalization

Cannabis advertising platform Weedmaps started trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday in the wake of the completion of its merger with special purpose acquisition company Silver Spike Acquisition Corp.

The transaction brought California-based Weedmaps, a leading but sometimes controversial online marketplace for cannabis consumers and businesses, $579 million in gross proceeds, according to a news release.

In connection with the closing of the deal, Silver Spike changed its name to WM Technology. Its Nasdaq ticker symbol is MAPS.

Shares were up 9% Wednesday at more than $20 each.

The transaction was approved unanimously by Silver Spike’s board of directors. It also was approved by stockholders at a special meeting last week.

Chris Beals, Weedmaps chief executive officer, said in a release that the merger will enable the company to accelerate its growth as it benefits from ongoing legalization across the country.

For the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, the company generated net income of $39 million on $162 million in revenue.

Weedmaps, which has been operating as WM Holding Co., has run into issues with regulators in recent years.

In early 2018, California regulators ordered the company to stop carrying advertising from illegal cannabis retailers.

Weedmaps also was the focus of a federal investigation at least partially tied to its relationships with licensed and apparently illicit California companies.

Original Story from MJ Biz Daily

Is now the time to invest in cannabis stocks?

by Travis C | Feb 12, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Culture, Legalization, Politics

Legalization talk and Reddit stock warriors are driving more people to invest in cannabis stocks, but the stocks aren’t returning on the investments yet.

The industry is booming and growing at an exponential rate, but due to federal law, there are very few publicly traded “cannabis” companies. For this reason, investors in the US looking to cash in on cannabis will look to Canada.

Aphria, Tilray, and Canopy Growth are a few of the big players in Canada, with billions in investment assets. However anybody who actually follows the industry in Canada could see plain as day that these companies are not performing.

So why are people just now deciding to invest in these companies?

Legalization and Reddit

Unless you’ve been living under a few rocks for the last month, you have likely heard about the GameStop Reddit controversy. If not, here’s what happened; hundreds of users of the social media platform’s subreddit r/WallStreetBets found out that a billion dollar hedge fund was shorting GameStop stock, buying stock in advance to drive down price with the goal of being bought out at their original buying price.

Investors from r/WallStreetBets decided to buy up as much GameStop stock as possible, forcing the hedge fund to cover its losses and pay out for the increased stock price. If it hasn’t become obvious, I’m not a stock expert, so excuse the lazy explanation.

Long story short, GameStop’s stock price rose from $34 to $340 in a couple days, making those who cashed out a lot of money, while others bought in late thinking the stock would continue to rise, only to watch it tank days later.

Now, with a democrat majority in the House and Senate and control of White House, the party is pushing for cannabis reform, and likely federal legalization. With multiple party members publicly speaking about their intentions, the Reddit swarm caught wind and started talking cannabis stocks. But unlike GameStop, Reddit couldn’t manipulate the cannabis stocks in the same way.

Tilray and Aphria Merger

After news surfaced that two of the largest cannabis companies in Canada would be merging together, a lot of investors tried to cash in on the opportunity. In December of 2020 when the merger was initially announced, the stock began to sore as more began to invest.

The investment experts at Reddit appear to have caught on a little too late, pushing everybody on the platform to invest in these companies just in the last week. Unfortunately they couldn’t drive up the price in the same way as GameStop, and the stock eventually fell 4% despite the increased activity.

In other words, the stock spiked temporarily, and smart investors who already bought in at $23/share at the beginning of February were able to cash out at $63/share on February 10th. By February 11th the stock price was halved.

All of this drives the questions a lot of enthusiasts and investors are asking; is now the time to invest in cannabis stocks?

Wait for legalization?

The reality is that for most Americans trying to cash in on cannabis, the market is very small, niche and not very profitable in the United States market. This is why you see so much attention focused on Canada’s cannabis companies, because they federally legalized cannabis in 2018.

While there are some companies in the United States that work within the cannabis industry and are listed on the stock exchange, they are typically ancillary businesses, in other words businesses that don’t work directly with the plant. Equipment supply companies, pharmaceutical companies that research cannabis, etc. are the typical companies you’ll find in the US market.

With little information and education regarding these companies and the industry as a whole in the US due to no federal reporting, now is not the best time to invest in cannabis stocks in the US. Keep in mind that THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, WE ARE NOT FINANCIAL EXPERTS, WE JUST LOVE CANNABIS.

Politicians in the US have been talking about legalizing cannabis for close to a decade, and it has yet to even be decriminalized. To put hope into our politicians and betting money on them (literally) actually making progress toward legalization would be unwise at this time.

Consider that it wasn’t Republicans, but moderate Democrats in the House that refused to pass the MORE Act last October, opting to wait until after the election because they had their own seats to protect. With more elections coming up in 2022, we can expect a similar approach by moderates in the party, inadvertently blocking any sort of legalization from passing.

For now, the smart move is to closely watch the Canadian market, and push your local legislators to support legalization in your state and on the federal level. It’s your money, so spend it wisely!

Weedmaps agrees on $1.5 billion deal to go public

by The Real Dirt | Dec 12, 2020 | 420 News, Blog, Business

Weedmaps goes public with $1.4 Billion dollar deal

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–WM Holding Company, LLC (“WMH” or the “Company”) and Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SSPK) (“Silver Spike”), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, announced today a definitive agreement for a business combination that would result in WMH becoming a public company. The combined company will be led by Chris Beals, Chief Executive Officer of WMH, and is expected to remain listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Company Overview

Founded in 2008, WMH operates Weedmaps, the leading online listings marketplace for cannabis consumers and businesses, and WM Business, the most comprehensive SaaS subscription offering sold to cannabis retailers and brands. The Company solely provides software and other technology solutions and is non-plant touching. WMH has grown revenue at a CAGR of 40% over the last five years and is on track to deliver $160 million in revenue and $35 million in EBITDA for 2020.

The cannabis market in the U.S. is expected to double over the next five years as the majority of U.S. adults support having legal access to cannabis. Despite these expectations of growth, cannabis users in the U.S. are still a small sub-segment of the population today, and retail density is still low across the majority of states with regulated legal cannabis markets. The regulations related to these markets are often complex and disparate across states as well as cities and counties within regulated states. Cannabis itself is a highly complex and non-shelf stable consumer product. These dynamics present a challenging and sometimes uncertain environment for consumers seeking legal cannabis products and for businesses selling to cannabis users while operating in a compliant fashion.

WMH addresses these challenges with its Weedmaps marketplace and WM Business SaaS subscription offering. Over the past 12 years, Weedmaps has grown to become the premier destination for cannabis consumers, with over 10 million monthly active users and over 18,000 business listings across every U.S. state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico with a legal cannabis market. Clients of the Company maintain listings in 9 international countries outside of the U.S. Through the Weedmaps website and mobile apps, WMH provides consumers with information regarding cannabis retailers and brands, as well as the availability of cannabis products, facilitating product discovery and online order-ahead for pickup or delivery by participating retailers.

The Company’s cloud-based WM Business SaaS subscription offering provides cannabis retailers with an end-to-end operating system to access valuable users, grow sales and scale their businesses at a compelling return-on-spend. This “business-in-a-box” functionality ranges from integrations supporting product menus that have online order-ahead, delivery order fulfillment software, data & analytics, a point-of-sale solution and a wholesale marketplace. WMH has been investing in and optimizing its WM Business software solution to also facilitate compliance for businesses amidst the complex, disparate and constantly evolving regulations governing the cannabis industry. Underlying this compliance functionality is a proprietary and sophisticated rules engine that is a core underpinning of the WM Business SaaS platform.

Chris Beals, WMH’s Chief Executive Officer, will continue to lead the Company along with the existing management team. Silver Spike’s CEO and Chairman, Scott Gordon, will join the merged company’s Board of Directors upon completion of the transaction.

Management Comments

“We are thrilled to partner with Silver Spike to transition WMH to our next phase of growth as a public company,” said Chris Beals, CEO of WMH. “We passionately believe in the power of cannabis and the importance of enabling safe, legal access to cannabis for consumers worldwide. With this merger, we will be able to continue scaling the Weedmaps marketplace in the U.S. and internationally in service of our users while expanding the functionality of our WM Business SaaS offerings in service of our clients.

Our partnership with Silver Spike will provide us a stronger platform to advance our mission to advocate for legalization, social equity and licensing in many jurisdictions while providing cannabis businesses with the tools needed to succeed in a highly complex world of regulations. I am grateful for the continued support from my teammates and investors and most thankful for the thousands – and what I expect over time to be hundreds of thousands – of business clients on our platform. We are energized by the opportunities to continue helping our business clients thrive as regulated cannabis markets expand and grow.”