Lately I have been spending a lot of time engaging with clients who are dealing with cannabis investors. I work with companies and investors. Between public and private cannabis companies, the suite of investors runs the gamut from friends and family to key employees, executives, and board members with equity and synthetic equity grants, to
Over the years in my practice, including several instances in the past six months, I have advised cannabis business owners when a former partner has come back to haunt the business operations, usually looking for some type of payout based on a prior conversation or an agreement originally inked upon a lost napkin or envelope.
Cannabis businesses are unlike typical businesses in large part due to the significant tension between federal and state laws and regulations. This tension creates some uncertainty for every licensed cannabis business and every other business and individual involved in the marketplace: owners, financiers, employees, ancillary service providers, and even accountants and attorneys. Overview of Buying
The year 2020 was a shock for all of us from both personal and business perspectives, but 2021 is shaping up to look much better, especially for Washington cannabis companies. In the past three months, I have had serious conversations with many clients and prospective clients regarding M&A activities. The pace of inquiries has accelerated
Along with a robust cannabis practice, our law firm works with businesses around the globe on legal matters involving dispute resolution, customs, trade, employment, foreign direct investment, manufacturing, technology, intellectual property, and entertainment. Several years ago, these practice areas rarely overlapped; that is no longer the case. Our international and cannabis business lawyers now regularly
A couple of months ago, my colleague Vince Sliwoski wrote Oregon Cannabis Dispensary Sales: What We Are Seeing on Valuation, which focused on the secondary market for cannabis licenses and businesses. Vince explained that the retail market, i.e. the purchase and sale of dispensaries, is still mostly done on multiples of revenue. But what is
This is the season of the year where cannabis business owners start to take a hard look at their end of year finances to decipher how profitable the company has been and whether and how their employees and other key personnel should share in that profit alongside the owners. Some marijuana and hemp employers do
Recently the SEC updated its rules to simplify the patchwork of regulations to help companies in fundraising mode. This matters to cannabis companies of all types, especially those that want to utilize the available federal exemptions in their securities offerings. In the SEC’s own words, “These amendments will promote capital formation and expand investment opportunities
I have written in the past that cannabis companies of all stripes (whether involved in marijuana or hemp) that are in fundraising mode need to know when they are offering securities for many different compliance-related reasons, the biggest of which is to avoid jail time for committing securities fraud. According to the U.S. Securities Act
The U.S. cannabis industry attracts all kinds of entrepreneurs and investors. That has been true since Colorado and Washington legalized cannabis for adults 21 and up back in 2012, and since other states began creating comprehensive licensing regimes. The ever-emerging nature of the industry and its state-by-state quilt of regulations creates all kinds of business
