Aside from Canopy's big move, 2022 brought diverse transactions, from mergers to acquisitions to closures and bankruptcies. One of the biggest deals this year was Cresco Labs’ (CSE:CL,OTCQX:CRLBF) approximately US$2 billion acquisition of fellow US operator Columbia Care, a New York-based firm with an interest in the coveted state market. “It’s a unique opportunity to create industry leadership; it's a very important time with some sort of federal regulatory reform, we think, on the horizon," said Cresco CEO Charlie Bachtell at the time of the news. Investment experts have told INN the Canadian market is set to see a variety of strategic mergers and partnerships in order to survive the effects of financial whiplash caused by a downturn in sentiment. One such deal took place this year in a curious way, when Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY,TSX:TLRY) and HEXO (NASDAQ:HEXO,TSX:HEXO) partnered up, with HEXO selling its debt to Tilray. Tilray now has a direct option to convert an ownership stake into its peer. “What it allows us to do is, there’s certain synergies that the partnership … can potentially bring to the market,” Charlie Bowman, HEXO’s CEO, previously told INN in an interview. Similar to other cannabis companies before it, Charlotte's Web Holdings (TSX:CWEB,OTCQX:CWBHF) secured an investment deal worth nearly US$60 million with British American Tobacco (BAT) (NYSE:BTI). Kingsley Wheaton, chief growth officer with BAT, said the company was interested in a variety of products from Charlotte's Web, as well as its brand equity. This is not the first time BAT has invested in the cannabis space — the firm previously established a relationship with Canadian grower Organigram (NASDAQ:OGI,TSX:OGI) and recently German firm Sanity Group. Lastly, one of the most significant deals this year came when SNDL (NASDAQ:SNDL) agreed to buy the Valens Company (NASDAQ:VLNS,TSX:VLNS), a picks-and-shovels cannabis play, in an-all stock deal. The transaction has been approved by Valens shareholders. “We believe the pro forma company provides investors with attractive exposure not only to the highest revenue generating cannabis company in Canada trading well under its tangible book value but also a dominant platform that can become a global leader in cannabis,” Tyler Robson, CEO of Valens, said.