CleanSpark CLSK Acquires GRIID in 155 Million Stock Deal

CoinDesk reported:
CleanSpark (CLSK) is one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies. On Thursday, it announced an all-stock acquisition of one of its smaller competitors, GRIID Infrastructure.
The $155 million deal immediately brings an additional 20 megawatts of power to CleanSpark to support its mining operations. Tennessee is expected to add another 400 megawatts of power over the next two years.
CleanSpark acquires GRIID for $155 million
The merger agreement requires CleanSpark to assume all of GRIID’s debts and other obligations. It also requires CleanSpark to provide a $5 million working capital loan to GRIID and repay a $50.9 million bridge loan to fulfill other obligations of the small mining company.
CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford said in a press release, “This acquisition provides us with a clear and stable path to replicate the significant accomplishments we have made in Georgia over the past three years in Tennessee over the next three years.”
“This was achieved by building out over 400 megawatts of infrastructure supported by valuable long-term power contracts.”
Following the announcement, GRIID’s stock price fell by over 50%, while CLSK’s stock price rose by 4%, indicating that traders saw the merger agreement as a significant deal.
According to Google Finance data, CleanSpark’s stock closed at $16.05 per share on Thursday, implying a market capitalization of $3.6 billion. The company is one of the best-performing mining stocks so far this year (+47%), diverging from the trajectory of most industry participants whose stocks have plummeted significantly before the Bitcoin halving.
Bitcoin mining acquisitions
CleanSpark is not the only mining company to announce an acquisition in recent months. Since late May, Riot Platforms (Riot) has been attempting a hostile takeover of Bitfarms (BITF), proposing to acquire the company at a price of $2.30 per share.
Bitfarms initially rejected the acquisition offer a month ago, with Riot stating that the actions of the company’s directors did not “serve the best interests of all shareholders.”
As of Thursday, BITF closed at $2.59 per share. RIOT’s stock price has dropped 11% since last month, to $9.12 per share.
Core Scientific (CORZ), a former leading mining company that recently emerged from bankruptcy, is currently considering a potential acquisition offer of $1 billion from cloud computing company CoreWeave. Since the offer, CORZ’s stock has risen by 92% this month.