Beyond The Marijuana Index: MJIC CEO Talks Company's Desire To Be 'Amazon Of Weed'

MJIC Inc., the company behind the much-discussed Marijuana Index*, tracks U.S. and Canada-traded weed stocks and has been used as the base for the main cannabis ETFs out there. However, the media seems to have emphasized only one of the company’s multiple business segments.

Chatting with cannabis industry insiders, Benzinga realized MJIC’s business had changed a lot in recent months. In speaking with CEO Sturges Karban, a Harvard University alum and seasoned corporate finance veteran, the refined strategy the executive team has been implementing becomes clearer.

The ‘Philosophical’ Framework

MJIC started as an investment business, a venture capital firm focused on the cannabis space. Nonetheless, the past couple of years have witnessed a migration toward what Karban has defined as a “full-blown operating business that fits squarely inside of the industry to help professionalize it.”

The legal marijuana industry nowadays is mostly a compliance business. Unsurprisingly, this has been one of MJIC’s priorities as well. “In making the decision to transition from being an investor to being an operator, one of the things that we decided (as a matter of policy and principle) was we would just absolutely not compromise our compliance,” the CEO told Benzinga. And, MJIC does not apply that standard to how it operates its own business but also sets it as a prerequisite for anyone that wants to transact with the company.

Bezos Style

When Karban took over as CEO at MJIC, he had a vision for the company: It would become the Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN of cannabis. What he projected was a first-of-its-kind omnichannel approach to the industry that ultimately creates, not just a commercial platform, but also a community — “an identity destination that is more than just a pragmatic instrument for daily life.”

“What we are building toward is an infrastructure, a strategy, a platform and a community that essentially will look a lot like the Amazon of legal cannabis, starting in the state of California and then coloring in the map state by state,” he said.

In other words, the company is looking to be able to service and support every vertical in the supply chain, from B2B wholesale to on-demand consumer deliveries — always with a laser-focus on compliance.

“We want to offer a truly comprehensive, value-added package that goes beyond just logistics and moving stuff around in trucks up and down the state.”

While MJIC seems to be taking many steps in the right direction, becoming “the Amazon of weed” is certainly an ambitious goal.

Many of the pieces are already in place; only some infrastructural details remain to be filled, the CEO said. “We started this with an analytical review of what we already own in our portfolio, the services business that we had built out in the transition period between being an investment company and an operating company,” he said. So, the first question was, which of the assets already owned by MJIC supported the infrastructure they were looking to build?

The first differentiator the management team identified was the media business, which allowed them to “help support and promote client products and services as their distributor.”

The other legacy asset MJIC held, which execs believed would help support an aggressive expansion into distribution, was the compliance business. “That services offering has both a commercial and regulatory value proposition,” Karban said. “It’s commercial because we are constantly on top of what is happening at all 482 municipalities in California, so we have an informational advantage in terms of where licensing is heading. But, most importantly, from a regulatory perspective ... We understood the importance of compliance.”

Filling In The Blanks

Once the core assets had been pinpointed, MJIC started looking into how to fill out an infrastructure that could support the transformation of its virtual platform into a physical one — from a logistics, fulfillment and delivery perspective.

So, the company started making strategic acquisitions.

First came Rolling Paper Depot: a proprietary, national e-commerce platform focused on unregulated products like lighters and rolling papers. After that, it was Hippie Butler, a personalized subscription business with similar products. With these two businesses, the e-commerce and subscription boxes were checked.

Finally, MJIC purchased Speed Weed, one of the largest local, on-demand delivery businesses in Southern California, which also offered a statewide overnight courier service for large B2B hauls.

“If you look at all of those channels kind of aggregated into one platform, there is a centralized community around it and an access point to it that we are building on a proprietary technological basis,” Karban noted. “That gives you the reach into everything, every channel. It’s complete and end-to-end, from cultivation all the way to consumer."

“So, we are bringing that functionality, the ability to lawfully move products in whatever form it is, from whatever place it needs to go in California, across any vertical, and across any channel, supported by media, compliance, and financial services. That’s the package that we’re offering to people and that we have in place today.”

The Middleman

Although MJIC wants to become a full-service company, its core business focus is placed on distribution. “Of all the different verticals that compromise the supply chain, distribution is ultimately going to be the organizing force of the industry because all of the others are kind of siloed in what they do,” Karban explained. “Distribution is a strategic place here because that is ultimately the force that organizes it, connects all of those different stakeholders.”

Source: MJIC

This is where the company aspires to be like Amazon: In wants to insert itself into the lives of its customers, both on the business side and on the consumer side, making itself both instrumental and indispensable to them.

Some of the major companies included in the North America Marijuana Index are:

• GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR GWPH
• Axim Biotechnologies Inc AXIM
• Terra Tech Corp TRTC
• APHRIA INC COM NPV APHQF
• AURORA CANNABIS IN COM NPVACBFF
• CANOPY GROWTH CORP COM NPV TWMJF
• Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc CNBX
• Kush Bottles Inc KSHB
• Scotts Miracle-Gro Co SMG
• Insys Therapeutics Inc INSY
• Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc ZYNE

By  Javier  Hasse  

Source:  https://goo.gl/JBSt46

Wall Street Breakfast: Black Friday In Full Swing

 Includes: ALIOY, AMZN, ATSG, BA, BHP, BTI, DB, DBOEY, DLAKY, EADSY, 

Black Friday isn't as big as it once was due to earlier holiday deal hysteria, but it's still a very significant day for retail. The National Retail Federation expects 137.4M Americans to hit stores at some point over the weekend, and around 74% of that population already went shopping on Thanksgiving Day. That's about on par with last year's figures as online sales become a bigger part of the holiday. Adobe even expects Black Friday web purchases to top $3B for the first time, up 11.5% from 2015.

Economy

Despite a minor pullback overnight, the dollar continues to climb past more of last year's peaks against the euro. Only the March 2015 high of $1.0457 is now standing in the way of a push towards parity that banks are again saying is on the cards. The greenback is currently worth more than 7.5%against a basket of major trading partners than it was three months ago.

Japan's core consumer prices marked their eighth straight month of annual declines in October, illustrating the sheer scale of the BOJ's struggle to beat deflation and stagnant growth with diminishing policy options. The nationwide core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, fell 0.4% from a year earlier, keeping policymakers under pressure.

German news roundup: Business morale was unchanged in November as Ifo's business climate index remained steady at 110.4, while it was confirmed that the country's final GDP halved its growth rate to 0.2% in Q3. Meanwhile, European Parliament President Martin Schulz is stepping down in January to run in next year's elections in Germany, where he is seen as a potential rival to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Consumers and businesses increased their spending in Q3 as the U.K. economy registered a resilient performance following the Brexit vote. Household spending rose 0.7% from the second quarter and business investment increased 0.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics. Growth overall was unrevised at 0.5%, with trade providing the strongest contribution.

Faced with a rapidly sliding currency in the wake of the U.S. presidential election, the Turkish central bank raised interest rates yesterday for the first time in almost three years. The lira bounced higher after the decision, which included a 0.5 percentage point rise in its benchmark one-week rate to 8%, but reversed course swiftly, hitting a record low. The currency now stands at 3.42 to the dollar, down 15% this year and over 9% in November alone.

"Turkey could open its gates for migrants to Europe if pushed by the EU," warned President Tayyip Erdogan, a day after European lawmakers voted for a temporary halt to EU membership talks with Ankara. MEPs overwhelmingly backed the decision citing Turkey's post-coup purges, the closure of numerous media outlets and the possible restoration of the death penalty.

A new peace accord was signed Thursday between Colombia's FARC rebels and President Juan Manuel Santos, who said he would seek congressional ratification instead of a popular referendum that was rejected in October. But his political opponents have promised a fight in congress and are considering the viability of collecting signatures for a petition calling for another plebiscite.

Crude prices are little changed as uncertainty ahead of a planned OPEC-led crude production cut and thin liquidity due to Thanksgiving kept traders from making big bets on markets. OPEC is due to meet on Nov. 30 to coordinate a cut, potentially together with non-OPEC member Russia, but there is also disagreement within the producer cartel as to which member states should cut and by how much.

Stocks

Johnson & Johnson has approached Actelion (OTCPK:ALIOY) about a potential takeover in a bid to boost its pharma business, Bloomberg reports. Europe's largest biotech firm has two pulmonary arterial hypertension drugs which J&J (NYSE:JNJ) would love to get its hands on, but deliberations are still at an early stage. Shares in Actelion are up around 13% so far this year, valuing the company at around $17B.

Nasdaq is planning a new trading option for investors to rival IEX Group, the startup that won regulatory approval in June to launch a market with a "speed bump." In a letter to the SEC, Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) proposed a so-called extended life priority order attribute, which would benefit long-term investors who may not be monitoring minute changes in market prices.

The finance chief of Deutsche Boerse is warning that global rivals would become dominant if the German group's planned $28B merger with the London Stock Exchange (OTCPK:LNSTY) was blocked by European regulators. "The Americans will sit down together with the Chinese to regulate the market," Deutsche Boerse's (OTCPK:DBOEY) Gregor Pottmeyer said at an industry event in Frankfurt.

Wells Fargo has asked a U.S. District Court to order dozens of customers who are suing the bank over the opening of unauthorized accounts to resolve their disputes in private arbitrations instead of court. The motion is in response to the first class action lawsuit filed against Wells (NYSE:WFC) since it agreed to pay $185M in penalties and $5M to customers for opening up to 2M accounts in their names without permission.

In a letter sent to financial watchdogs, a group of U.S. lawmakers has reportedly warned that President-elect Donald Trump could provide special protection for Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB). Some House Democrats say he will have "ample opportunity to influence policy decisions," including the DOJ's proposed $14B fine, and claim the German institution is the only major Wall Street bank that has continued to lend to Trump Inc. DB -1.5% premarket.

Alibaba’s stock has best-ever 2-day run after analysts ‘strong buy’ call

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shot up to a 1 1/2-year high in active trade Friday, after the China-based e-commerce giant was upgraded at Raymond James, which cited strong quarterly results and an attractive valuation.

Aaron Kessler, analyst at Raymond James, raised his rating to a strong buy, after maintaining an outperform rating since he began covering Alibaba nearly two years ago. Kessler raised his stock price target to $124, which is 26% above current levels, from $95.

Alibaba’s stock BABA, +7.06%  ran up 7.1% to close at its highest level since Jan. 28, 2015. It has advanced 12.5% since it reported fiscal first-quarter results before Wednesday’s open, the best two-day stretch for the stock since it went public on Sept. 19, 2014.

Volume was 71.7 million shares, nearly six times the full-day average of 12.5 million shares, according to FactSet, and enough to make them the most-actively traded on U.S. exchanges.

Don’t miss: Alibaba closes out a trifecta of e-commerce earnings beats

FactSet

Kessler offered several reasons for his more bullish view:

• Total retail revenue increased 49% to $3.52 billion, which was 6% above his estimates, because of strength in gross-merchandise volume growth and strong monetization gains.

• A big jump in monetization rates to 2.79%, in the latest quarter from 2.49% the previous quarter. The company showed improvements in both mobile, to 2.8% and desktop, to 2.78%.

“We would note this is the first quarter mobile monetization has exceeded desktop,” Kessler wrote in a note to clients.

• The cloud business is expected to continue to produce rapid growth—it nearly tripled in the latest quarter—and should remain the leader in China. Kessler said he believes cloud revenue is “well on track to reach a $1 billion run rate” by the end of the year.

• Strength in core margins, in which earnings before interest, taxes and amortization—a common measure of cash flow—grew 61% in the latest quarter.

• Shares are attractively valued, as 12 times calendar-year 2017 estimates of core-commerce earnings a share, compared with his expectations of 20% core long-term growth.

For Raymond James, stocks rated strong buy are expected to produce total annualized returns of at least 15%, and outperform the S&P 500 SPX, -0.08%  over the next six to 12 months. The S&P 500 has gained 6.8%, so far in 2016, as of midday Friday.

Kessler wasn’t alone in being more bullish on Alibaba. Of the 42 analysts surveyed by FactSet, three others raised their ratings, and 25 others lifted their stock price targets since Alibaba reported results.

By Tomi Gilmore

Source : http://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibabas-stock-takes-flight-after-analysts-strong-buy-call-2016-08-12

7 Companies That Are Doing Wonders With AI

Artificial Intelligence - or AI - is far from science fiction. For better or worse, we've already taken big steps toward creating computers that think independently.

Source: Atomic Taco via Flickr

You may be surprised to find out that along with academics and innovative startups, some of the world's biggest technology companies are on the forefront of the research and development that is driving the race to true artificial intelligence.

Will computers ever pass the Turing Test, fooling a human into thinking they're conversing with another human over an extended period of time? That will be one of the key indicators that AI has reached the tipping point, heading into the uncharted waters of true, self-aware artificial intelligence.

Most of us interact with computers that make decisions for us every day, at least in the form of recommendations. Chances are you might use a navigation app on your smartphone that calculates the best route to the restaurant a virtual assistant like Apple Inc. 's ( AAPL ) Siri has suggested you would enjoy.

These features are all powered by a form of artificial intelligence.

Taking on an AT-ST in Electronic Arts Inc 's ( EA ) Star Wars Battlefront ? You're going up against the game's AI.

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We're still not at the point of AI where computers can "think" on the level of a human or become self-aware, but every year efforts get closer. Here are seven of the companies that are working on developing AI that could eventually be capable of passing the Turing Test.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)

Source: Open Grid Scheduler Via Flickr

One of the most visible technology companies when it comes to AI is also one of the oldest: International Business Machines Corp. ( IBM ).

IBM's research into artificial intelligence goes back to the 1950s , and for many years, Watson - its Jeopardy -winning super computer - has been the most public face of AI.

Deep Blue, another IBM super computer, gained fame in 1997 for defeating the world chess champion.

IBM currently markets Watson as a platform that leverages machine learning and natural language processing to analyze large quantities of unstructured data for customers.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: Alphabet Inc (GOOG, GOOGL)

Source: Open Grid Scheduler Via Flickr

Alphabet Inc 's ( GOOG , GOOGL ) Google is into artificial intelligence in a big way. So big, in fact, the company established its own artificial intelligence ethics board to oversee its efforts.

In 2014, the company bought what was probably the world's best known AI company -DeepMind - to further its progress in artificial intelligence development.

Primarily a software and services company, pushing the capabilities of AI is critical to many of Google's ventures. The technology is central to helping prevent its self-driving car from hitting pedestrians, ensuring Android's Google Now virtual assistant is keeping on top of your wedding anniversary and fine-tuning your Google Search results.

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Like IBM, Google also has some fun with artificial intelligence. In March, its AlphaGo AI beat the reigning world Go champion four games to one. AlphaGo is extremely advanced AI technology that learns from its mistakes and from the techniques of its opponents and represents a big step forward in the race to develop true machine intelligence.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Source: iphonedigital via Flickr

Apple may be primarily focused on consumer electronics - computers, smartphones, tablets - and streaming media, but it's also actively exploring artificial intelligence.

Siri - the virtual assistant found in iOS, watchOS and tvOS - is at the forefront of Apple's AI pursuits. The smarter Siri can be made, the more effective it is, whether that takes the form of anticipating when you should leave for an appointment or interpreting what you actually mean when you ask a question.

AI is also key to features like listening recommendations for Apple Music.

What may be Apple's biggest push into artificial intelligence is currently deep under wraps. The company is suspected to be working on a self-driving car, and AI would play a big part of that effort.

If there was any doubt that Apple was interested in AI, the fact that it has acquired a number of AI-related companies lately, including Vocal IQ , Perceptio and most recently, Emotient should put that to rest.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: Sentient Technologies

Source: Sentient Technologies

U.S.-based Sentient Technologies employs the world's largest and most powerful artificial intelligence network.

How powerful? Sentient makes use of idle PCs around the world, amassing a network of several million PC cores across more than 4,000 sites.

The team at Sentient was involved in the development of Apple's Siri. Since then, the company has developed an AI stock trading system, worked with MIT to develop an AI nurse that combats the deadly bacterial infection sepsis based on real-time analysis of patient vital signs and released Sentient Aware for e-Commerce, an "AI-powered online shopping associate."

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Sentient Technologies is also currently the most funded AI company, with $143 million raised to date , so expect it to continue being at the cutting edge as the importance of artificial intelligence grows.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: Facebook Inc (FB)

Source: SilverIsdead Via Flickr

Does Facebook Inc ( FB ) care about artificial intelligence? This quote from the company's AI research page should send a very clear message:

"We seek to understand intelligence and make intelligent machines. How will we accomplish all this? By building the best AI lab in the world."

Facebook says that AI is one of the three keys to its growth (along with virtual reality and devices to deploy internet access to remote areas of the world) over the next decade.

The recently announced chatbots for Facebook Messenger are a sign of what's to come.

Automated customer service tools that can employ Facebook's AI know-how to engage customers using interactive communication, chatbots represent a leap forward in the practical use of artificial intelligence. They have the potential to let businesses using Facebook Messenger replace more expensive, frontline human customer service representatives.

As the technology improves, it will eventually be indistinguishable from the real thing.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Source: Mike Mozart Via Flickr

Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) has been in the headlines lately because of its latest foray into artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, Tay the AI-powered Twitter Inc ( TWTR ) chatbot, pulled an epic faceplant once unleashed, but the race to artificial intelligence isn't all winning game shows and chess matches.

Microsoft is invested in AI research in a big way and it has implications for many facets of its business.

Software that learns from data improves Bing search results and makes the Microsoft Band's health applications more accurate. It helps Xbox One games be more challenging and makes Cortana - Windows' virtual assistant - become an increasingly important facet of the Windows PC and mobile experience.

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And one day, it will help chatbots like Tay remain composed despite internet trolls, and may even power the triumphant return of Clippy, the infamous Microsoft Office assistant.

Companies Doing Wonders With AI: Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

Source: C_osett via Flickr

Finally, it should come as no surprise that Amazon.com, Inc. ( AMZN ) is one of the companies helping to push artificial intelligence to the next level.

Behind the scenes, one of the keys to AI is the raw processing power needed to collect, analyze, learn from and makes decisions based on huge amounts of data. Not many companies have access to this kind of horsepower, but Amazon Web Services leverages the company's massive investment in cloud computing to offer Amazon Machine Learning .

You can bet Amazon Machine Learning is custom tailoring the presentation of products on every visit you make to amazon.com and directing the bot that sends you those recommendation e-mails.

Amazon is also active on the virtual assistant front. Although it was late to the game compared to Siri, Cortana and Google Now and lacks a native smartphone platform to boost its popularity, Amazon's Alexa has proven to be a surprise hit.

Amazon's Echo speaker is Alexa-powered, providing an AI in the living room that can search for music, provide the weather forecast, order products online and control smart home gear, including a Nest thermostat.

Alexa is also involved in perhaps the last area you'd expect an Amazon service to be found: automobiles. At CES 2016, Ford Motor Company ( F ) announced plans that would see Echo owners be able to use Alexa to interact with Ford vehicles .

Between 2011 and 2014, over $2 billion was invested in companies focusing on technology and services related to artificial intelligence, while over 100 AI-related companies were part of a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions involving tech giants like Apple, Google and Amazon. And that pace is only accelerating.

In other words, get ready for AI - it's the future.

By: InvestorPlace Media

Source:http://www.nasdaq.com/article/7-companies-that-are-doing-wonders-with-ai-cm606660