CannaRegs CEO Amanda Ostrowitz said the company is “pulling the plug” on its $12 million stock deal with MassRoots following the surprising vote by MassRoots’ board of directors to remove founder Isaac Dietrich as CEO and install Vice President Scott Kveton, Business Insider reports. Ostrowitz, who was named president of MassRoots in conjunction with the deal, was traveling in Italy at the time of the vote.
“I had no idea what the hell was going on with the board,” she said in the report, adding that she is voiding the deal because she needs to do what is best for her company, “not be on a roller-coaster ride.”
According to the report, Ostrowitz indicated she had not been in direct contact with the board over the ouster of Dietrich or CannaRegs’ withdrawal from the deal; instead, she had received confirmation of the withdrawal from attorneys. Forbes, who broke the MassRoots story, reported that Dietrich’s removal was directly related to the CannaRegs deal as Kveton believed the price Dietrich paid for the company was too steep.
“This was a deal we absolutely intended to do,” Ostrowitz told Business Insider, adding that she had not considered selling the company until approached by MassRoots and was actively raising funds to thwart a separate attempt to purchase the firm. “We were in the due diligence, paperwork phase. We did everything we needed to do.”
In an email to Business Insider, Kveton indicated that the “transition” to remove Dietrich had been in the works for “some time” and called Ostrowitz’s decision “unfortunate.”
“ … Amanda has built a great business, but ultimately the board wanted to maximize the deal for the MassRoots shareholders and we just couldn’t get there,” he said in the email.
Ostrowitz said that while the company is “still on good terms with Massroots” she didn’t think Dietrich should “be out of the picture.”
Dietrich, who is still listed as CEO on the MassRoots website, has not publicly commented on the board’s vote.
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