It’s finally happened. After weeks of often acrimonious exchanges, on Wednesday,
Aurora Cannabis Inc. (
TSX: ACB,
OTCQB: ACBFF,
Forum) and
CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (
TSX: CMED,
OTCQB: CMMDF,
Forum) announced that Aurora’s former unsolicited take-out offer had now morphed into a friendly acquisition.
Flashback to the original Aurora offer. Under those terms, the Aurora deal priced CanniMed at approximately $25 per share. Today, under the new terms,
Aurora is now offering $1.1 billion for CanniMed, equivalent to a price of $43 per share. Today CanniMed closed just below $42.
This new acquisition now ranks as
the largest cannabis deal to date. Naturally, it was the big topic of the day on the Stockhouse Bullboards. But not everyone was a winner here. Most cannabis investors know that CanniMed was about to finalize the acquisition of
Newstrike Resources Ltd. (
TSX: V.HIP,
OTCQB: NWKRF,
Forum). Under the terms of the Aurora-CanniMed deal, the Newstrike acquisition is now off the table. While Newstrike nets a $9 million break-up fee (negotiated with CanniMed), clearly the Aurora-CanniMed acquisition is a disappointment to that company’s shareholders.
What will be of interest to many Bullboard users is traffic to the bulletin boards of these three companies. Aurora saw a huge jump in traffic (up to 52,917 reads today). Newstrike saw – in proportionate terms – an even larger jump in views (33,472). Only the CanniMed bulletin board was relatively silent.
Were CMED shareholders (at least those who are Stockhouse users) already considering the Aurora offer to be a done-deal? That’s what these numbers seem to be suggesting.
What’s next? Two months ago; the $245 million strategic investment in Canopy Growth by Constellation Brands seemed to be the catalyst for the most recent spike in cannabis sector valuations. Now a deal
four times as large has just gone down.
Elsewhere on Stockhouse, in the #3 spot today is
Novo Resources Corp. (
TSX: V.NVO,
OTCQB: NSRPF,
Forum). Those who watch the Bullboards will recall this company taking off in the middle of 2017. After reaching an all-time high of more than $8 per share, NVO has since slipped to as low as $2.45. It closed today at $2.61.
After that (surprise! surprise!), it’s cannabis, cannabis, and more cannabis on the Bullboards.
Canopy Growth Corp. (
TSX: WEED,
OTCQB: TWMJF,
Forum),
Friday Night Inc. (
CSE: TGIF,
OTCQB: TGIFF,
Forum),
Namaste Technologies Inc. (
CSE: N,
OTCQB: NXTTF,
Forum),
Isodiol International Inc. (
CSE: ISOL,
OTCQB: ISOLF,
Forum),
Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp. (
TSX: V.CBW,
OTCQB: CBWTF,
Forum), and
Matica Enterprises Inc. (
CSE: MMJ,
OTCQB: CBWTF,
Forum).
Today, a $1+ billion dollar cannabis deal was just announced. Just two months ago; CanniMed was trading at $14 per share. Today it was bought out at what works out to $43 per share. And that is one big reason why so many Stockhouse investors are talking cannabis these days on the BullBoards.
FULL DISCLOSURE: CanniMed Therapeutics Inc., Friday Night Inc., Isodiol International Inc., and Matica Enterprises Inc., are paid clients of Stockhouse Publishing.