Canopy Growth Shockingly Fires its Co-CEO Bruce Linton

The marijuana industry experienced a shake up on Wednesday when Wall Street learned that Canopy Growth’s co-CEO Bruce Linton was out of the company.

The Canadian marijuana producer, who is the world’s largest publicly traded cannabis company, said that Linton had been removed from co-chief executive as well as from being a member of the board.

Now Mark Zekulin, the former co-CEO, will be the sole chief executive of the company as they search for another leader. Zekulin said in the company’s press release, “I personally remain committed to a successful transition over the coming year as we begin a process to identify new leadership that will drive our collective vision forward.”

Linton reached out to CNBC and said in an interview that he was fired.

“I think stepping down might not be the right phrase,” he said, referring to the language in the company press release. “I was terminated.”

Shares of the stock tumbled around 5% on the news.

It was Linton who helped build the company into what it is today.

“The magnitude of losses for [Canopy] has expanded far more than we had expected, and while we commend Linton for his vision in establishing the world’s leading cannabis company, we believe new leadership will be a welcome change,” Cowen analyst Vivien Azer noted.

“About eight months and two days later, I think the board had decided they wanted a different chair and a different co-CEO,” said Linton, remarking on the multi-billion dollar investment from Constellation Brands last November.

Last month Constellation CEO William Newlands said the company was “not pleased” with Canopy’s fourth quarter results. Canopy had reported a wider-than-expected loss in the quarter. This loss took 20 cents per share out of Constellation’s own earnings.

“What we remain excited about is that this is going to be a big long-term business, and we are working with Canopy almost on a daily basis to ensure that we are all focused on the right things,” Newlands said at the time.

A Constellation spokeswoman said the company fully supports the decision to appoint Zekulin as sole CEO.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC) and have not been compensated for this article.