| More than three years after securing the rights to acquire Acreage Holdings, Canada-based Canopy Growth Corp. is following through on its plan—and then some. This week, Canopy Growth released plans to acquire Acreage, Wana Brands and Jetty Extracts. The resulting business will be known as Canopy USA, a combination of some of the most recognizable brand names in the global industry. “As the growth of the U.S. cannabis market continues rapidly at the state level, this strategy enables us to take control of our own destiny and capitalize on the once-in-a-generation opportunity in the largest cannabis market in the world,” Canopy Growth CEO David Klein said in a public statement. In 2019, Canopy’s deal with Acreage was seen as a uniquely bold and strategic foothold in the U.S. marketplace. Federal legalization has long been discussed as a vaguely inevitable development (when, not if), so the long bet on a U.S.-based multistate operator (MSO) like Acreage seemed broadly sound. And the original $3.4-billion price tag on the Acreage acquisition was possible only because Constellation Brands had previously invested some $4 billion in Canopy Growth—another layer in the long game of setting a foundation in the as-yet-undeveloped American legal cannabis market. Industry observers will recall, too, that the 2019 M&A season was positively buzzing with activity. Canopy struck at the height of the international stock-based acquisition deal season. Ever since, it’s been difficult even for larger U.S-based MSOs to raise meaningful capital in this business. For Canopy, then and now, the long game prevails. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ken Shea put it simply enough: “They know the U.S. is the biggest prize of all.” -Eric Sandy, Digital Editor | 