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- 🌿 Houseplant bets on cannabis beverages, Weedmaps positions to go private, and Vireo secures funding for acquisitions
🌿 Houseplant bets on cannabis beverages, Weedmaps positions to go private, and Vireo secures funding for acquisitions
Welcome to another edition of The Pre Roll, the cannabis newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on the industry happenings you need to know. Here’s what we’re rolling up this week: Houseplant bets on cannabis beverages, Weedmaps positions to go private, Vireo secures funding for acquisitions, and more. Let’s get to it.
Alex Lipnik
December 20, 2024
together with
Happy Friday Pre Rollers! Welcome to another edition of The Pre Roll, the cannabis newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on the industry happenings you need to know.
Here’s what we’re rolling up this week:
Houseplant bets on cannabis beverages
Weedmaps positions to go private
Vireo secures funding for acquisitions
…and more. Let’s get to it.
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🚨 ROLL CALL
Business
Pineapple express. Actor and comedian Seth Rogen and his cannabis lifestyle brand Houseplant expanded into the cannabis beverage industry with Houseplant THC-infused sparkling waters. There are four available flavors that come in four-packs for $19.99: pineapple, citrus, black cherry, and blueberry. Each can contains 3mg of THC.
"Not every situation is right for smoking, and not everyone wants to smoke. Houseplant beverages offer an approachable dose that's perfect for those trying THC for the first time and for regular consumers like me who will love having a delicious, low-calorie, drinkable option. It's sparkling water with THC in it - everybody loves a Houseplant."
This isn’t Houseplant’s first foray into drinks. At the beginning of this year, in partnership with Cometeer, the maker of the world's first and only frozen coffee capsule, they launched Houseplant Coffee.
Tech
Private eye. The co-founders of cannabis technology giant Weedmaps — Doug Francis and Justin Hartfield — are aiming to take the company private. In order to do so, the two have proposed purchasing all of the shares of common stock they do not currently own at a price of $1.70 per share in cash. They collectively own almost 32% of outstanding shares currently.
We firmly believe that our proposed Transaction is in the best interests of WM stockholders as well as all WM stakeholders, including its employees, clients, and end-users. Our proposal presents the Company’s public stockholders with a value-maximizing alternative to WM’s current strategic trajectory and an opportunity to de-risk their investment.
The company went public at the end of 2020 in a deal that valued the company at $1.5 billion.
Business
Source: Vireo Growth Transaction Presentation
Acquired taste. Medical cannabis pioneer Vireo Growth secured $75 million in funding and announced the acquisition of four single state operators — Proper Brands in Missouri, Deep Roots Harvest in Nevada, WholesomeCo Cannabis in Utah, and The Flowery in Florida.
The transactions bring Vireo’s total operating footprint to 7 states, 9 cultivation and manufacturing facilities totaling over a million square feet, and 48 retail dispensaries.
🇺🇸 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
Connecticut: Cannabis sales rose in November as the price per gram fell.
Illinois: Governor JB Pritzker voiced his support for proposed legislation to regulate the state’s hemp industry.
Kentucky: Governor Andy Beshear revealed the winners of a second medical cannabis dispensary license lottery; the first saw mostly out-of-state companies get licenses.
Massachusetts: Adult-use dispensaries passed $7 billion in gross sales since the market kicked off in 2018.
Ohio: A bill to restrict Delta 8 appears unlikely to reach the desk of Governor Mike DeWine.
Virginia: State Democrats plan to push recreational cannabis legalization bills again in 2025, but Governor Glenn Youngkin is expected to veto.
🤝 DEALS
Agrify acquires beverage brand
The provider of cannabis and hemp cultivation and extraction solutions closed on its acquisition of the Señorita brand of hemp-derived THC drinks.
💨 QUICK HITTERS
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) released its 2024 Monitoring the Future survey, which looks at cannabis use among adolescents.
Flora Growth appointed Verano Co-Founder Sammy Dorf as Executive Chairman of its Board of Directors.
New York’s first legal cannabis dispensary, Housing Works, opened its second location in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan.
📚 WHAT WE’RE READING
‘Where’s the money?’ White outsiders convinced a Native American tribe to start a legal weed business. It ended in disaster (The Guardian)
Cannabis conundrum: Legal doesn’t mean clean; illicit isn’t always dirty (Los Angeles Times)
5 recent scientific findings that change what we know about cannabis (National Geographic)
🎙️ POTCASTS
Headset Wrapped 2024 and Looking Ahead to Next Year (High Rise)
🔎 JOB BOARD
Weedmaps
$111,650—$138,200
Vice President, Retail Operations
C3 Industries
Regional Retail Facilities Partner
Green Thumb Industries (GTI)
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Stay tuned for more cannabis industry news next week!
💚,
The Pre Roll Team
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