Main League Baseball is ending a 70-year relationship with buying and selling card firm Topps after signing a brand new partnership with a rival firm.

The lack of the MLB partnership instantly scuttled a deal introduced earlier this yr that may have made Topps a publicly-traded firm.

The special-purpose acquisition firm Mudrick Capital Acquisition Company II stated Friday that its settlement to merge with Topps to take the corporate public was terminated by mutual settlement after it discovered that MLB and the league’s gamers’ union wouldn’t be renewing their respective agreements with The Topps Co. once they come up for renewal on the finish of 2025 and 2022, respectively.

In line with the Related Press, ESPN obtained a memo it reported Thursday from the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation that sports activities merchandise firm Fanatics was creating an organization, which is unnamed, that may grow to be the unique licensee for baseball playing cards on the finish of subsequent yr as soon as its present licensing agreements expire.

Topps stated by 2025, they count on to have made all its present licensed baseball merchandise.