Curaleaf

I think the risk/reward is good.

We will definitely be touching on that, talking about cannabis, talking about Scott's 3.0 framework and who the winners are gonna be, talking about Curaleaf and Aurora.

Mm-hmm.

That [laughs] whole thing.

Uh, architecture to me is very simply the way companies are l- are building their future on very company-specific strategies.

Now, it's very important not to lose, uh, track of what I've previously said, which was cannabis stages stack, meaning 3.0 is building on 2.0.

So your strategy in 3.0, whether it's a GTI, a Verano, a Vireo, a Glasshouse, a True Leaf, a Curaleaf, go down the line, it's all gonna be predicated on what you did in 2.0 to survive.

What does your balance sheet look like? What does the talent look like? Where are you exposed? Where are you building durable advantage? Um, and, and because of what I believe 3.0 will look like- I firmly believe that you're gonna see more dispersion, and we're, and we're actually seeing that this year.

I dropped one loser last week or earlier in the stream with everybody for at least the hemp effort for Mike Johnson basically shortening the number of days or reducing the number of days that the House is going to be in session to make all of this happen.

The winners... are the folks that make popcorn because all of us who are eating popcorn as we are watching with delight the public fight between Aurora and Curaleaf.

It is just like...

It's just awesome.

If we just accept that legalization means liberalization, then the people who will benefit from the reforms won't be the communities that were devastated through criminalization, but they will be the biotech companies backed by Silicon Valley investors who are registering patents over plant strains and over chemical compounds that mean that they own the drugs that are being released into this new highly lucrative emerging market.

It would be the multi-state cannabis corporations like Trulieve, which is now floating on the New York Stock Exchange, or Curaleaf, which Forbes magazine registered their CEO as being the first person to become a billionaire purely from the trade of legal cannabis.

We're now, as I mentioned, this weird inflection point where there are still people imprisoned for cannabis trafficking, whilst there's also people becoming billionaires for doing the exact same activity.

And I think the important thing to do right now is not to give up the terrain of what legalization might look like to those who want to insist that it's purely going to be liberal commercialization and we need to look at other examples and the final point I'll throw in here is what happened in Germany when they legalized cannabis and so they announced they were going to legalize cannabis the traffic light coalition in 2021 and immediately people thought you know this is going to be the next chapter of the green rush you know Europe's biggest economy you know there's going to be cannabis dispensaries all over Berlin and Hamburg and all of the big you know cannabis companies and biotech and pharmaceutical companies were flying into Frankfurt in the hope to try and cut those deals.

And so, you know, this year there has been a huge sway of mergers and acquisitions of US companies moving into the European market, you know, looking to kind of globalize, you know, so, you know, we've seen, um, You know, Tilray, a major US cannabis corporation, buy out, you know, not just life clinics in the UK, but also Brewdog, a craft brewery firm in the UK as well, bought out my medicinal cannabis company.

You know, Cure Relief has been partnering up with companies in the UK and in Germany as well.

Curaleaf also had a huge advertising campaign in the UK.

If you've been in the London underground any time this year, you might have seen some adverts for Curaleaf advertising medicinal cannabis, which again, would have seemed crazy if you'd have gone back just a generation ago.

And I'm popping my popcorn and watching this.

I think something that I've written about that is a little under-discussed in the Aurora, Curaleaf, The battle is that this is really, Cureleaf, it's a bear hug, right? And if anyone watched Succession season one, you know what a bear hug is.

There's Cureleaf is trying to make Aurora shareholders an offer they cannot refuse.

Basically, companies have a fiduciary responsibility to increase their bottom line, and this would increase their bottom line.

Massachusetts voters might be telling Prohibition to take a permanent vacation.

Aurora Cannabis is telling shareholders to take no action on Curaleaf's unsolicited takeover bid.

Curaleaf has offered a combination of shares and cash, valuing Aurora at $4 a share with a $5 cap.

Aurora says the offer undervalues its European medical cannabis platforms and facilities.

Texas continues making THC regulations about as clear as mud.

All right.

Let's talk about the Curaleaf hostile takeover bid for Aurora.

It's getting ugly.

Aurora told shareholders this week that Curaleaf's offer... contains inaccurate statements and significantly undervalues the business, telling shareholders that they should take no action.

While a special committee of the board reviews it, Curalee fired right back the same day, accusing Aurora of deflecting from real issues, including hundreds of millions of dollars of inventory impairments under the current leadership.

Curaleaf's offer stays open for 105 days from its early August launch, and Aurora's board hasn't made a formal recommendation or a counter.

So there's definitely going to be more back and forth before this one's resolved.

My take is that this mudslinging just says right now to everyone that nobody really knows what Aurora's actual worth is.

Also, watch court rulings in New Jersey and any moves by Canadian producers expanding capacity in Portugal and Quebec.

Finally, flows into cannabis sector ETFs and major names like Tilray, Trulieve, Green Thumb, and Curaleaf will give short-term signals as markets reopen on Monday.

Got it.

Before we wrap, a few quick FAQs people ask.