Acreage Holdings

Acreage Holdings is the company that brought American cannabis into the living rooms of Wall Street and Washington. Founded by a high-flying financier, famous for recruiting an ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives to its board of directors, Acreage was for several years the archetype of American institutional cannabis, before being absorbed in 2024 by Canopy Growth at the end of a five-year legal and regulatory saga.

Kevin Murphy: from Lazard to Maine cannabis

Kevin Murphy is a New York financier who has worked with Lazard, Cantor Fitzgerald and Stanfield Capital Partners. In 2011, he made his first cannabis investment in a medical company in Maine. He went on to acquire stakes in cannabis operators in various states, initially via High Street Capital Partners, renamed Acreage Holdings in 2017.

Based in New York, the company goes public on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) in November 2018, with a portfolio of assets in 15 US states.

John Boehner and the communication coup

Acreage's story takes on an unprecedented political dimension when John Boehner, former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, who had said he was «always opposed to legalizing cannabis», joins Acreage's Board of Directors in 2018. The image is striking: a figure from the conservative Republican establishment publicly embracing medical cannabis, citing the potential to reduce the opioid crisis.

The board also includes former Republican Governor of Massachusetts Bill Weld and former Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Acreage embodies the idea that cannabis can appeal beyond its usual progressive base.

The Canopy Growth agreement and the regulatory saga

In April 2019, Canopy Growth announces the planned acquisition of Acreage for $3.4 billion - subject to conditions: the transaction will only be finalized when cannabis is legalized at the US federal level, or when certain regulatory conditions are met. This is an unprecedented legal structure, designed to enable a Canadian company to enter the US market without violating federal laws.

Five years of negotiations, agreement modifications and legal battles followed. The agreement is restructured several times. On December 9, 2024, Canopy USA, Canopy Growth's U.S. subsidiary, completes the acquisition of all 100% of Acreage shares. The company is delisted from the SSC on the same day. Acreage ceases to exist as an independent entity and becomes part of Canopy Growth's US strategy, with its operations in the Midwest and Northeast, and its dispensary brand The Botanist.