The long and slow dumpster fire that is the immolation of MedMen, once the largest and the most valuable cannabis company in the United States (on paper, anyway), is burning down to the last ashes.
After watching the beleaguered multi-state cannabis company lose 95 percent of its value and tens of millions of dollars per quarter, the beleaguered and increasingly isolated co-founders, Adam Bierman and Andrew Modlin, quietly and finally exited their now-former company’s board, the company announced on Wednesday.
Lawsuits alleging that the pair ran their company like a “Wolf of Wall Street-inspired personal slush fund, inspired by Steve Jobs and El Chapo” are settled.
(For all the ridiculous details, like the multi-million dollar homes and round-the-clock security allegedly paid for with investor capital, six-figure jobs for people who didn’t seem to do anything, and other (alleged!) clinical delusions, check out this POLITICO deep dive.)
The lawsuit’s claimants, two of the company’s largest outside investors, received enough shares to have a very strong say in what happens with what’s left over.
All that’s left is the fight over the scraps, MedMen’s desiccated and then charred hulk—and identifying both the villain and the moral of this cautionary tale.
The analysis is not something most cannabis companies and cannabis investors will want to hear. The hubris that both floated and sank MedMen runs absolutely rampant in legal weed.
Seth Yakatan
Partner, Katan Associates, Inc
Seth Yakatan has more than 20 years of experience as a corporate finance professional, actively supporting small-cap and major companies in achieving corporate, financing, and asset monetization objectives through the successful structuring and management of strategic transactions and investments totaling more than several billion dollars in value.