Topps baseball cards for the 2016 season are on display during the “Open Topps Baseball Series 1 Cards” event at Topps offices on February 10, 2016 in New York City.
Kris Connor | Getty Images
Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II said Friday that its SPAC merger with The Topps Co. “ended by mutual agreement” due to Major League Baseball’s decision to end a 70-year trading card deal with Topps.
The announcement of the blank check company on the Nasdaq list was presented to the Securities and Exchange Commission a day after news that MLB will not renew the trading card deal with Topps.
MLB is expected to cede its trading card business to Fanatics, the sports retail company.
The merger of Topps’ special-purpose acquisition company with Mudrick, announced in April, valued Topps at $ 1.3 billion.
MLB has partnered with Topps on baseball cards since 1952, earning a royalty on the cards the company sells.
Topps, founded in 1938, said Friday it will remain a private company.
“Topps expects to be able to produce substantially all of its current licensed baseball products through 2025, in accordance with its existing agreements, and will build on the exceptional performance of the second quarter of 2021 in its Sports and Entertainment segment and its Confections segment “. said the company.
Topps, which had been publicly negotiated before being private in 2007, holds license agreements with Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League.
Murdrick’s full statement on Friday said: “Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II (Nasdaq: MUDS) announced today that the Merger Agreement and Plan with Topps Intermediate Holdco, Inc. and Tornante-MDP Joe Holding LLC have terminated mutually. agreement, following the notification on August 19, 2021 of the Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association that they would not renew their respective agreements with The Topps Company when they reached their renewal in late 2025 and 2022 , respectively. “
Topps president Michael Eisner, a former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, had told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in the spring that Topps chose to go public again through a SPAC because of the flexibility of this mechanism and its limited distraction to direction.