Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award onstage through the 2022 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater on June 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Winter | Getty Photos Leisure | Getty Photos
Hip-hop mogul and businessman Sean “Diddy” Combs is venturing into the world of hashish.
Combs has agreed to amass licensed hashish operations in New York, Massachusetts and Illinois from Cresco Labs Inc. and Columbia Care Inc., in a deal price as much as $185 million. The transaction marks Combs’ first funding in hashish and can create the nation’s first minority-owned, vertically built-in multi-state hashish firm, in addition to the world’s largest Black-owned hashish firm, in accordance with a launch from Combs and the businesses.
The transaction comes after Cresco Labs earlier this 12 months agreed to buy rival Columbia Care in a $2 billion deal that will make Cresco the highest U.S. hashish producer. It was one of many greatest offers within the hashish trade, and required Cresco to divest belongings in limited-license markets akin to New York.
The deal consists of 4 retail shops and one manufacturing facility in New York state; three retail shops and one manufacturing facility in Massachusetts; and two retail shops and one manufacturing facility in Illinois.
“My mission has all the time been to create alternatives for Black entrepreneurs in industries the place we have historically been denied entry, and this acquisition supplies the fast scale and influence wanted to create a extra equitable future in hashish,” Combs in a Friday press launch.
The belongings give Combs the flexibility to fabricate branded hashish merchandise and distribute the merchandise to dispensaries in main metropolitan areas like New York Metropolis, Boston and Chicago. Combs may even be capable of function retail shops within the three states.
“Proudly owning the complete course of — from rising and manufacturing to advertising and marketing, retail, and wholesale distribution — is a historic win for the tradition that can enable us to empower numerous leaders all through the ecosystem and be daring advocates for inclusion,” Combs added.
“For Cresco, the transaction is a significant step in the direction of closing the Columbia Care acquisition and our management place in one of many largest shopper merchandise classes of the longer term,” stated Charles Bachtell, CEO of Cresco Labs.
Bachtell added that the trade is in want of “higher range of management and perspective,” and that the take care of Combs is “extremely thrilling.”
The deal provides to Comb’s rising portfolio of companies enterprise that features music, vogue, media and spirits.
