When Aurora Cannabis Inc., one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing cannabis companies, submitted a proposal to acquire all the common shares of CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. in November, 2017, it triggered a nasty battle between the two publicly traded medical marijuana producers that would not be resolved until the end of February, 2018.
During the intervening months, CanniMed attempted to thwart the hostile bid by rallying its board of directors to support its acquisition of another, but smaller, cannabis company, Newstrike Resources Ltd., a transaction enthusiastically endorsed by one of Newstrike’s shareholders: iconic band The Tragically Hip.
This counter-development was problematic, however, because four large CanniMed shareholders, who together controlled 38 per cent of its outstanding shares, had originally approached Aurora about acquiring CanniMed in the first place.
It proved to be anything but amicable.
Lexpert contributor Paul McLaughlin reports at lexpert.ca. Follow @Lexpert on Twitter. Lexpert is published by Thomson Reuters.