Former Canopy CEO is already working his magic at tiny Martello

Shareholders of a tiny Canadian tech firm are cheering the departure of Bruce Linton from pot giant Canopy Growth Corp. (WEED.TO)

Martello Technologies Group Inc. (MTLO.V) has surged 89 per cent since Wednesday morning, when Canopy announced that Linton had been ousted as co-chief executive officer. He later did several television interviews wearing a Martello T-shirt, which replaced his usual Canopy gear.

“I’m going to help them out a bit more,” Linton said Wednesday in an interview on BNN Bloomberg TV. He is currently co-chairman of the software-services company and was its CEO until late 2017.

Martello jumped 43 per cent Wednesday and was up another 32 per cent at 12:08 p.m. Thursday in Toronto. The stock is currently trading at 35 cents, 133 per cent above its private placement price of 15 cents a share before it went public last September. The company has a market value of $65 million compared with Canopy’s $18.4 billion.

Linton, who mostly worked in the technology sector before founding Canopy in 2013 and building it into the world’s largest pot company, said he’s still passionate about tech and wants to make Martello “really crank.”

The Ottawa-based company manages and optimizes communications network performance. It reported revenue of $3.1 million and a loss from operations of $1.3 million in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31.

Linton shares the chairmanship with Terry Matthews, who has founded or funded dozens of Canadian tech companies including Mitel Networks Corp. Linton has known Matthews for about 30 years.