High Times Holding Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire the California operations of Moxie, the state’s first licensed cannabis company and a leading multistate cannabis operator. The acquisition gives High Times new cannabis cultivation and production capabilities to complement our current portfolio of cannabis holdings in California, the largest legal marijuana market in the world, where we operate branded dispensaries and offer licensed cannabis products. The deal also makes High Times the most well-known brand in the Golden State with a vertically integrated cannabis operation.
“With our current platform of stores, we believe this acquisition will be synergistic in nature for the Moxie brands and provide a good home for their branded products in California,” High Times CEO Paul Henderson said about the deal. “Additionally, it will provide High Times with a cultivation and production team that has won dozens of previous Cannabis Cups, and other awards across the country. We look forward to bringing High Times classics as well as some new favorites we’ve been working on to the masses with top quality production, both in our own stores, and to other retailers in the near future. This move opens the door to a whole new world of brands from the High Times organization.”
Moxie was the first cannabis company to be licensed in California and has since expanded its cultivation and production to legal weed states including Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Utah. Utilizing pharmaceutical grade technology and strict safety standards in their cultivation facilities, Moxie provides customers with high-quality recreational and medical cannabis products from its library of hundreds of varietals.
Deal Includes Nearly 50,000 Square Feet Of Cultivation
Under the deal, High Times will take over Moxie’s California operations, which include an 11,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 46,000 square feet of flowering canopy cultivation. The acquisition gives the company the capacity to produce up to 3,500 pounds of dried cannabis flower and more than 25,000 pounds of fresh frozen cannabis annually for High Times and our associated branded products. The deal also includes an exclusive 99-year license to use the Moxie, MX, and HighNow brands in California. In return, the Moxie organization will be granted 1,363,654 shares of Hightimes voting common stock.
“Moxie has been a leading brand in recreational and medical cannabis since our founding, which made it non-negotiable that any acquisition agreement was done with an organization that shares our commitment to creating the highest-quality cannabis products that are trusted by consumers and regulators,” said Jordan Lams, CEO and founder of Moxie. “We believe these values are essential, especially in our current economic climate, for maintaining a strong and prosperous industry. High Times is one of the most recognizable brands in cannabis and we have the utmost confidence in their ability to continue Moxie’s upward trajectory in California. This combination creates a vertically integrated business model that allows for more control and provides High Times with the freedom to make product-driven decisions that we know will help the industry and provide recreational and medical cannabis users with the highest quality cannabis products.”
Moxie Is A Leading Cannabis Brand
Moxie, a recognized leader in the industry with over 100 industry awards including 62 Cannabis Cups, will retain its cannabis cultivation and production operations in Pennsylvania, Utah, and Missouri. And while the continuing federal prohibition on cannabis means that each state has its own regulated market, Lams said that he is confident that the Moxie brand will be able to maintain its standards of quality across the markets the company operates in.
“One of Moxie’s most important goals since our founding has been to create cannabis products that are trusted equally by consumers and regulators, which is why we carefully monitor every stage of the cultivation, production, and distribution process,” Lams said. “High Times shares this belief in the importance of taking care of the cannabis plant and we’re very confident that all Moxie products will continue to be of the highest quality and maintain the trust of local governments and consumers. Our goal now is to continue to bring the Moxie product to markets across the country and maintain these company-wide best practices, while also continuing to be aware of the unique qualities and preferences in each state.”
High Times was founded in 1974 as an underground magazine with our fingers on the pulse of marijuana culture worldwide. In recent years, the company has expanded into all things cannabis with new ventures in print, video, and multimedia, and has set the bar for industry events around the globe with our series of Cannabis Cup competitions. Over the past three years, High Times has also entered the legal cannabis industry with eight dispensaries owned and operated in California, plus licensing agreements for retailers in Michigan and Florida. High Times branded cannabis products are available is six markets.
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