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“Marcato believes it is highly imprudent for Acreage to sell itself today at the proposed valuation, with so much unlocked growth and value embedded in the company,” said McGuire in the letter. Acreage is in the retail distribution and cultivation business and owns licences to grow or sell cannabis in 20 states with a total addressable market of 180 million Americans.

It is among the five largest American cannabis companies by market value, and its board features a number of prominent former politicians, including former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, and former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney.

If Acreage is intent on selling the company prior to any kind of federal legalization in the U.S., McGuire proposes that it run a “formal and competitive sale process” that would involve Canopy, along with any major company in the alcohol, tobacco, cannabis or consumer-packaged goods industries to bid for Acreage in an auction-like process that would see the winner acquire Acreage for “cash and/or valuable risk-adjusted currency.”

The deal has been viewed as almost unanimously favourable in the cannabis industry because it represents a loophole of sorts, in which Canopy is able to have future access to U.S. assets while being listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.

As long as they are listed, both exchanges bar cannabis companies from investing in or owning U.S. assets due to the federally illegal status of the drug.

“We believe the transaction moves Canopy closer to realizing the upside of U.S. cannabis. The addition of a U.S. operator with political prowess on the board, likely de-risks American commercialization,” wrote Royal Bank of Canada cannabis analyst Douglas Miehm in a note just days after the transaction.

GMP Securities analyst Martin Landry upgraded his position on Canopy to “buy” following the announcement of the deal, citing the price of the acquisition and the access Canopy will gain to an estimated $50 billion market.

Canopy was not available for comment.