Hightimes Holding Corp. is continuing its push into the retail sector, announcing last week that the company had reached an agreement to acquire 13 planned and operational California dispensaries from Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. The terms of the mostly-stock deal were not disclosed.
Adam Levin, Hightimes Holding executive chairman, said the company has “enormous respect for the Harvest brand” and the firm is looking forward to “ushering in the next generation of retail experience with Harvest as a significant shareholder” in the company.
“We’ve long supported Harvest and the other cannabis-retail-trailblazers as they pushed forward despite changing legislation, insurmountable licensing fees, political stigma and, frankly, through a process that was designed to be difficult.” – Levin in a statement
Harvest is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. In addition to California and Arizona, the company operates in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, and North Dakota.
In March, Hightimes Holding signed a letter of intent to acquire California-based Humboldt Heritage Inc. and its subsidiaries Humboldt Sun Growers Guild and Grateful Eight LLC. The move to retail follows a January announcement that the firm had signed a deal with dispensary licensees in Los Angeles and Las Vegas with plans to open two flagship retail locations.
The shift to retail comes after the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last year that there was ‘substantial doubt’ in the company’s future. In January, incoming CEO Stormy Simon said the company would move to the retail side of the industry.
The company had acquired many of its competitors over the years – including magazines DOPE and Culture, and website Green Rush Daily. Earlier this month, Hightimes Holding announced it temporarily suspended publication of DOPE and Culture and furloughed the magazine’s employees amid the coronavirus pandemic which shut down most in-store dispensary shopping. The magazines are primarily print publications that are distributed to dispensaries monthly.
In February, Hightimes Holding received a trading symbol from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority which advances the company’s plans of going public by next year.
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