Weekly Cannabis Stock News: Aurora Cannabis Gets Back in the Acquisition Game

Not long ago, previously acquisition-happy marijuana companies put the brakes on spending. Collectively, they lost money much more frequently than they made it — so snapping up new assets to build scale became a less hot idea than it had been a few years ago.

That was then, and this is now. Last week’s big cannabis company news was a throwback to the good old days of 2018 or so, with Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB)signing on the dotted line for a buyout. Another key pot industry event transpiring last week came when a major dispensary operator reporting its latest set of earnings. Here’s more on both developments.

Aurora buys Reliva
Canada-based Aurora is reaching across the border for that acquisition. It announced it has agreed to buy U.S. hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products maker Reliva in a deal for roughly $40 million in Aurora common stock, plus up to $45 million over the next two years in cash, stock, or a combination of the two if Reliva meets specific financial goals.

Aurora said it expects Reliva to be “immediately accretive” in terms of every marijuana company’s preferred operational metric — adjusted EBITDA. This would help Aurora, as it’s required by debt covenants to be adjusted EBITDA-profitable overall in Q1 of next year.
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