Fanatics, the world’s largest seller of licensed sports apparel is all set to acquire the Topps trading card business currently valued at $1.6 billion.
As per Sportico, Michael Rubin’s company is paying nearly $500 million to buy Topps Sports & Entertainment, the business unit that includes physical cards and digital collectibles, according to the people, who were granted anonymity because the negotiations are private.
Fanatics earlier secured exclusive long-term trading card licenses from a handful of sports leagues and unions (including rights to MLB and MLBPA currently held by Topps).
Founded in 1938, Topps currently has those baseball rights, plus a number of other card agreements, including deals with F1, UEFA, the Bundesliga and Disney (Eisner’s former company).
