Major League Baseball is ending a 70-year relationship with trading card company Topps after signing a new partnership with a rival firm.
The loss of the MLB partnership immediately scuttled a deal announced earlier this year that would have made Topps a publicly traded company.
A special-purpose acquisition company, Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corp II, on Friday said that its agreement to merge with Topps to take the company public was terminated by mutual agreement after it found out that MLB and the league’s players’ union would not be renewing their respective agreements with The Topps Co when they come up for renewal at the end of 2025 and next year respectively.
Photo: AP
ESPN on Thursday reported that it obtained a memo from the MLB Players’ Association that a company created by the sports merchandise company Fanatics that has yet to be named is to be the exclusive licensee for baseball cards once its current licensing agreements expire at the end of next year.
The Fanatics deal also includes the players’ unions for the National Basketball League and the National Football League, ESPN reported.
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