Michael Eisner-Led Trading Card Brand Topps Will Go Public Via SPAC

Trading card company Topps plans to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), according to CNBC. Topps is best known for its line of baseball cards and Bazooka candy.

The SPAC, Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II, values Topps at $1.3 billion, and the deal is likely to close in either the late second or early third quarter. The combined company is proposed to be called Topps, and it will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker TOPP, CNBC reported.

According to Topps Chairman Michael Eisner, speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday (April 6), the SPAC merger was decided upon because of the “flexibility and limited distraction to management,” CNBC reported.

Eisner, former Disney CEO, is going to stay on as Topps’ chairman, while Mudrick Capital and funds and accounts managed by Gamco Investors and Wells Capital Management will likely invest another $250 million in the SPAC, according to CNBC.

Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm, is projected to sell much of its ownership in Topps, but Eisner’s firm, The Tornante Company, will roll its entire equity stake into the SPAC-combined company, CNBC reported.

Topps is best known for its sports trading cards, but the company has been branching out to include interactive mobile apps that connect collectors, according to CNBC. It’s also recently broadened its reach to include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the popular digital art pieces that are recorded on blockchains similar to networks underpinning cryptocurrencies.

In separate news, the logistics of this year’s baseball season remain fraught, PYMNTS reported. In Texas, the Rangers have announced they won’t be putting any restrictions on attendance at their home field of Globe Life Field.

They will be requiring masks, except while eating or drinking. That has drawn criticism from opponents like the Arizona Public Health Association, which has said that if everyone is drinking beverages in the stand, for example, then there won’t be any mask use happening at all.