The hobby was shaken Thursday when reporting from Reuters and Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 confirmed Panini Group was exploring strategic options, including a possible sale.
Most notably for collectors, Il Sole 24 reported Fanatics-owned manufacturer Topps, private equity firms (including Advent, Charterhouse and CVC), and groups from the entertainment and toy sectors could be among the rumored parties interested in acquiring Panini.
A potential acquisition by Fanatics, in particular, drew the interest of card collectors, with the company now operating its own sprawling international trading card business.
Sources close to Fanatics told cllct Friday that Topps is not interested in buying Panini.
But four years after Fanatics first entered the category, would an acquisition make sense? There are reasons why Fanatics might not be a potential buyer, mostly because Fanatics and Panini have attempted to do business before and are currently engaged in a legal battle.
In late 2021, Fanatics stunned the collecting community when it acquired exclusive rights to make licensed cards for the NBA and NFL once Panini’s deals with the leagues and their players associations expired. At the time, Fanatics’ 10-year deal with the NBA was scheduled to start in 2025 — it went into effect Oct. 1 — and its 20-year deal with the NFL would begin in early 2026.
According to the Washington Post, Fanatics offered Panini more than $2 billion in early 2022 to buy out the remaining years on many of Panini’s deals, including rights to the NBA and NFL. The deal eventually fell through, with Fanatics founder and CEO Michael Rubin saying he didn’t believe Panini could meet its profit projections.
Fanatics acquired Topps’ trading card business in January 2022, and according to Rubin, has since hired more than 1,800 people. Dozens of those hires have been former Panini employees, which, among other complaints, led to Panini suing Fanatics for antitrust violations in 2023, alleging Fanatics had created a trading card monopoly.
Along with losing key employees, Panini’s complaints include the acquisition of a key printing press by Fanatics, which hindered Panini’s production.
Fanatics countersued Panini soon after, alleging the company tortiously interfered with employment agreements. Those suits have been consolidated before a single judge and are currently in discovery, with trial dates not expected until 2027 or even 2028.
Dueling lawsuits between the companies is surely a hurdle for any kind of acquisition. On the surface, it’s not hard to assume any deal would include the stipulation the suits get dropped.
The companies aren’t legally prevented from negotiating a deal amid a lawsuit, but Panini would potentially weaken its own case — if a deal to drop them isn’t reached — if it argues Fanatics has created a monopoly but is then willing to negotiate the sale of its own trading card business or even more for the right price.
Lawsuits aside, it’s important to ask whether Panini has anything Fanatics needs or wants now that it has established its own card business.
Fanatics has already started producing NBA cards, and the NFL licenses will transition next year. Panini still owns rights to FIFA, WNBA, NASCAR, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and LIV Golf, among others, but Fanatics could decide to wait those contracts out and later negotiate its own deals.
It’s unclear whether anything else was negotiated beyond Fanatics buying out Panini’s licenses in 2022, but it’s fair to believe people and infrastructure could have been valuable at the time. Fanatics now likely has many of the people it wants for the collectibles business and has built or acquired the infrastructure and facilities needed to produce cards at scale.
Many collectors have pointed to Panini’s intellectual property — probably with the hopes any kind of merger wouldn’t mean the end of Panini’s Prizm, Optic, Flawless or Donruss lines — but it’s hard to know whether Fanatics cares to own those properties.
Securing Panini’s IP could give Fanatics access to popular inserts including Kaboom, Downtown and Color Blast, but the company could also just continue making its own super short-printed chases to match.
One piece of Panini’s business that could be immediately helpful is any international infrastructure. Topps has made expanding into Europe and Asia a priority, and the Italy-based Panini Group could conceivably provide a foothold internationally. It’s hard to know whether Panini’s other businesses, such as comics or magazines, would be desirable assets.
So far, collectors have heavily speculated any potential sale of Panini Group or its individual businesses is based on its future in trading cards. That could be a factor, but the company could also simply be assessing its options following the death of CEO Aldo Hugo Sallustro in April.
Sallustro had led Panini Group for decades and became owner, along with sisters Anna and Teresa Baroni, in 2016. It’s not uncommon for companies to explore options following the death of a CEO or major shareholder.
According to Reuters, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera estimates the Panini Group could be worth between €3 billion and €4 billion. At that valuation, any investment in Panini Group or any individual business could come at a significant cost.
Would any or all of Panini Group be worth it to Fanatics?
According to the Washington Post, Panini America generated more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024, while Topps generated $1.6 billion. Securing some of Panini’s infrastructure or IP could be valuable, but maybe Fanatics would rather let the trading card market play out the way it is.
Fanatics appears to be winning that battle anyway.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture. He was previously the Collectibles Editor at Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on X and Instagram @benmburrows.