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Former baseball champion treats for stickers: American mermaids for Panini

One of the symbolic companies of Italian business, but also a cultural icon of our country, is about to change hands to the American baseball team. There Panini, a company that for 60 years, round and round, has been printing the stickers of football championship players, but not only that, it is about to merge with the Slam corp ofex asso del baseball, Alex Rodriguez, also known in the news for being the ex of singer Jennifer Lopez.

Panini, former baseball champion, deals with stickers: the value of the Modenese Group

The offer delivered to the Emilian publishing house would, according to Bloomberg, di 3 billion dollars. The negotiation with the spac, a vehicle containing only liquidity destined for acquisitions, would have reached the ‘due diligence’ stage and it is therefore not yet certain that it will come to fruition.

Formed by Rodriguez’s investment firm A-Rod Corp. (from the nickname of the baseball champion who retired in 2017) and hedge fund Antara Capital, Slam Corp raised $ 575 million by going public last February.

Panini, former baseball champion treats for stickers: history

His sticker albums have gone through different eras, resisting fashions and trends with their simple charm.

Since its foundation in 1961, for the Group it would be the seventh different owner. Starting from the kiosk in Piazza dal Duomo in Modena, where the Panini brothers began selling stickers with their mother, the company was divided in 1986 in Carlo De Benedetti through Sabaudia (25%) and Mondadori (10%) with the idea of ​​listing it on the stock exchange.

The project did not go through, so much so that the company was sold for 150 billion lire to the English Maxwell. However, after only four years the group was sold again, this time returning to Italy to the Boroli-Drago families through De Agostini and to a group of financial investors.

Even in that case the operation turns out to be less profitable than expected, so in 1994 it ends up at Marvel, and then returns in 1999 to our country thanks to a consortium led by Fineldo SpA, the financial company of the entrepreneur Vittorio Merloni.

In September 2013, it acquired the company branch of Disney magazines in Italy, producing historical comics such as Topolino, until the definitive sale in 2016 to the group with main shareholders. Aldo Hugo Sallustro and his sisters Anna and Teresa Baroni.

It is not the first time that the group ends up in the sights of overseas investors: already examined by funds such as Advent, Eqt, Carlyle and Kkr, in 2019 it received an offer of around one billion euros, which proved insufficient.

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