Weedmaps, a cannabis review site and software company, announced Thursday that it has agreed to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The deal values the self-described "cannabis tech marketplace" at $1.5 billion and would be a rare example of a cannabis-related company listing on a U.S. stock exchange, which legally can't list cannabis companies.
Because the company is not "plant-touching," going public was still on the table. The California-based company decided to go the SPAC-route in particular because it offered "a more extended conversation with potential investors," CEO Chris Beals told Cheddar.
Given the stigma that still hangs around cannabis, Beals said this offered a chance to curate investors who appreciated the complex nature of the industry.
"I think we had options that were before us, but the reality is we're a tech and SAAS provider," he said. "We provide this business-in-a-box software in an incredibly complex industry. The regulations are complex in cannabis. The end-market dynamics are complex."
In addition to its comprehensive cannabis review site, which has more than 10 million users, Weedmaps builds point-of-sale software for cannabis retailers in states with legal industries. This has made the company a crucial player in the industry's steady expansion.
Beals said this will help insulate the company from any volatility in the nascent market, which has seen its share of ups-and-downs in recent years.
"I think the last few years for cannabis have been marked by much slower growth at a macro-level than a lot of people thought would exist," he said. "That being said, I think there's a lot of reason for excitement coming out of this November election. I think this was by far the most momentous election we've ever seen for cannabis legalization."
In November, Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota approved ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana. South Dakota and Mississippi approved medical marijuana measures.
Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives also passed a bill to essentially decriminalize cannabis nationwide. The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act would federally deschedule the drug and expunge the records of those with cannabis convictions if passed by the Senate, although that appears to remain an uphill battle.
Whether this measure is successful though won't impact Weedmaps' growth prospects, according to Beals, who said the company still has room to grow in its current footprint. The company is aiming to leverage deeper data sets, covering everything from the smell and taste of the products, to become even more of a key player in the industry.
"Frankly we're not just providing a marketplace for them to find cannabis, we've done a bunch of work providing the actual data," he said.
The company is on track to make $160 million in revenue and is currently profitable. The SPAC, Silver Spike Acquisition Corp, saw shares rise nearly 50 percent at the news of the merger.
Updated December 11, 2020 at 11:05 am ET to note Weedmaps uses the term "cannabis tech marketplace" to describe its core business.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
