Curaleaf sets sights on leadership in cannabis market with hostile bid for Aurora

Medical cannabis producer Curaleaf Holdings, whose 2018 IPO made its largest shareholder, Boris Jordan, a billionaire, has announced plans to acquire Canadian rival Aurora Cannabis in a hostile takeover bid. Curaleaf believes the combined company will become the cannabis market's leader.

Curaleaf is launching a tender offer to acquire Aurora Cannabis shares directly from shareholders. It will offer 0.3 Curaleaf shares plus $0.75 in cash for each Aurora share, for a total of $4.00 per share. By comparison, Aurora shares closed Tuesday at $3.67 apiece. The transaction values the entire company at $290 million. The offer will be on the table until December, and Curaleaf has the right to extend or withdraw it, according to the press release.

Curaleaf did not conduct due diligence on Aurora, and its acquisition proposal was based on publicly available information about its Canadian rival, according to the press release. It said Aurora was facing significant headwinds from lower medical cannabis reimbursement rates in Canada and the cancellation of reimbursement in Germany, resulting in a smaller and less profitable business.

In Canada, reimbursement rates fell approximately 30% effective April 1, causing Aurora’s revenue in the segment to decline approximately 26% year over year to $27.7 million in its first quarter 2027, ended June 30, the company reported. It also noted higher medical cannabis sales in Germany but did not provide figures.

In addition, Aurora shareholders have faced “millions of dollars in restructuring costs and billions of dollars in write-offs, as well as continued dilution from an at-the-market equity issuance program at prices below our offer price,” Curaleaf noted. In February, Aurora announced that it had filed a prospectus supplement allowing it to sell new shares from time to time for aggregate proceeds of up to $100 million.

Curaleaf argues that all of this has contributed to the decline in the Canadian company’s share price this year. It says a combination would create the cannabis market’s largest player, with revenue of $1.5 billion. For context, Curaleaf’s revenue declined 5% in 2025 to $1.27 billion.

Curaleaf said that before taking its offer directly to Aurora shareholders, it had tried to discuss a merger with the company’s board, but the board declined to engage. Aurora denied that it had refused to hold discussions. In a letter to shareholders published on August 11, Aurora said it had received two proposals from Curaleaf but considered the proposed price too low. 

Late on Wednesday, Aurora urged shareholders to take no action on Curaleaf’s unsolicited offer while a special committee reviews it and prepares a recommendation within 15 days. CEO Miguel Martin said Curaleaf was seeking to acquire Aurora’s EU-GMP facilities and medical cannabis platforms at the lowest possible price.

Curaleaf, formerly known as PalliaTech, was founded in 2010 by banker William Todd, a neighbor of Boris Jordan, according to Forbes Russia. At the time, Jordan was building businesses in Russia: among other things, he cofounded the investment bank Renaissance Capital and ran the television network NTV.

Jordan initially rejected his neighbor’s offer to invest in Curaleaf, but after learning that “medical marijuana is not a drug,” he became an early investors and later bought out almost the entire company.

In 2018, Curaleaf was one of the first companies in the industry to go public in Canada, where cannabis is legal. The IPO valued the company at $4 billion, while Jordan, who retained a 34% stake after the listing, became a billionaire with a fortune of at least $1.4 billion, Forbes reported.

Curaleaf currently has a market capitalization of CAD3.4 billion on the Toronto Stock Exchange, equivalent to approximately $2.45 billion, and a market capitalization of $2.4 billion in the U.S., where it trades over the counter.

According to MarketWatch data, Curaleaf has six Wall Street ratings, all “buy.” The average target price of $13.90 per share implies 51% upside from the last close.