please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2007 learn how and when to remove this template message the topps company inc. logo as of 1981 update type private company industry collectibles founded brooklyn new york united states 1938 headquarters one whitehall street new york new york united states key people michael brandstaedter president and coo products trading cards confectionery net income 10 734 000 fiscal 2006 owner madison dearborn partners and tornante number of employees 422 website topps.com the topps company inc. manufactures chewing gum candy and collectibles . based in new york new york 1 topps is best known as a leading producer of basketball cards football cards baseball cards hockey cards and other sports and non sports themed trading cards . contents 1 company history 1.1 incorporation 1.2 shareholder dispute and buyout 2 topps europe ltd 2.1 topps europe ltd products 3 topps baseball cards a history 3.1 entry into the baseball card market 3.2 competition for player contracts 3.3 consolidation of a monopoly 3.4 the monopoly and its end 3.5 topps in the modern baseball card industry 4 card design 4.1 use of statistics 4.2 artwork and photography 4.3 coping with updated developments 5 football cards 6 trading cards for other sports 7 non sports products 7.1 candy and confectionery items 7.2 non sports trading cards 7.3 disney channel 7.4 comic books 7.5 games 8 awards 8.1 major league baseball 8.2 minor league baseball 9 see also 10 notes 11 references 12 external links company history edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message topps itself was founded in 1938 2 but the company can trace its roots back to an earlier firm american leaf tobacco . founded in 1890 by morris shorin the american leaf tobacco co. imported tobacco to the united states and sold it to other tobacco companies . american leaf tobacco should not be confused with the american tobacco company which monopolized u.s. grown tobacco during this period . citation needed american leaf tobacco encountered difficulties during world war i as it was cut off from turkish supplies of tobacco and later as a result of the great depression . shorin s sons abram ira philip and joseph decided to focus on a new product but take advantage of the company s existing distribution channels . to do this they relaunched the company as topps with the name meant to indicate that it would be tops in its field . the chosen field was the manufacture of chewing gum selected after going into the produce business was considered and rejected . at the time chewing gum was still a relative novelty sold in individual pieces . topps most successful early product was bazooka bubblegum which was packaged with a small comic on the wrapper . starting in 1950 the company decided to try increasing gum sales by packaging them together with trading cards featuring western character hopalong cassidy william boyd ; at the time boyd as one of the biggest stars of early television was featured in newspaper articles and on magazine covers along with a significant amount of hoppy merchandising . when topps next introduced baseball cards as a product the cards immediately became its primary emphasis . the father of the modern baseball card was sy berger . 3 in the autumn of 1951 berger then a 28 year old veteran of world war ii designed the 1952 topps baseball card set with woody gelman on the kitchen table of his apartment on alabama avenue in brooklyn . 4 the card design included a player s name photo facsimile autograph team name and logo on the front ; and the player s height weight bats throws birthplace birthday stats and a short biography on the back . the basic design is still in use today . berger would work for topps for 50 years 1947 97 and serve as a consultant for another five becoming a well known figure on the baseball scene and the face of topps to major league baseball players whom he signed up annually and paid in merchandise like refrigerators and carpeting . the shorins in recognition of his negotiation abilities sent sy to london in 1964 to negotiate the rights for topps to produce beatles trading cards . arriving without an appointment sy succeeded by speaking in yiddish to brian epstein the beatles manager . berger hired a garbage boat to remove leftover boxes of 1952 baseball cards stored in their warehouse and rode with them as a tugboat pulled them off the new jersey shore . the cards were then dumped into the atlantic ocean . 5 the cards included mickey mantle s first topps card the most valuable card of the modern era . no one at the time of course knew the collector s value the cards would one day attain . currently a pack of 1952 topps baseball cards is worth at least 5 000 . since 2012 topps began creating digital sports cards starting with the topps bunt baseball card downloadable app . 6 today they have expanded that market into other apps that include topps huddle football app topps kick soccer app and the extremely popular star wars card trader app that was released this year . incorporation edit the company began its existence as topps chewing gum inc. a partnership between the four shorin brothers . it later incorporated under new york law in 1947 . the entire company originally operated at the bush terminal in brooklyn but production facilities were moved to a plant in duryea pennsylvania in 1965 . corporate offices remained at 254 36th street in brooklyn a location in the waterfront district by the gowanus expressway . in 1994 the headquarters relocated to one whitehall street in lower manhattan . after being privately held for several decades topps offered stock to the public for the first time in 1972 with the assistance of investment banking firm white weld & co. the company returned to private ownership when it was acquired in a leveraged buyout led by forstmann little & company in 1984 . the new ownership group again made topps into a publicly traded company in 1987 now renamed to the topps company inc. in this incarnation the company was incorporated in delaware for legal reasons but company headquarters remained in new york . management was left in the hands of the shorin family throughout all of these maneuverings . shareholder dispute and buyout edit criticism of the company s financial performance and flat stock price led two hedge funds holding 7.4 % of the stock to launch a proxy fight in july 2006 . calling for better management of the company as the topps full value committee they tried to place three members on the company s board of directors at the annual shareholder meeting . in a compromise with topps the three dissident shareholders were elected to the topps board to replace two directors running for re election while ceo arthur shorin son of joseph stayed on as a tenth member of the board . the battle extended into 2007 with a 385 million buyout offer led by the firms madison dearborn and tornante an investment company started by former longtime disney ceo michael eisner . the price of 9.75 per share was endorsed by topps executives but the dissident board members felt it undervalued the company and pushed to shop for other bidders . this led to discussions of a potential merger with the rival upper deck company which was prepared to buy topps for 10.75 per share a total of about 425 million . topps management decided to reject this offer citing concerns about the financing and potential antitrust regulation ; upper deck pursued it for several more months but as a hostile takeover bid . upper deck eventually withdrew its offer complaining that topps had impeded any reasonable efforts toward a merger . meanwhile a vote on the lower bid was delayed in the aftermath of upper deck s withdrawal allowing management more time to lobby for shareholder support . the buyout was eventually approved in a special shareholders meeting by nearly two thirds of the shares voting . the result was close however as the bloc voting for the deal was only a narrow majority of total shares outstanding including those not voted a requirement to complete the deal . on october 12 2007 topps was acquired by michael eisner s tornante company and madison dearborn partners . 7 under eisner s direction topps began to expand into the entertainment and media business with plans for a bazooka joe movie . former television executive staci weiss began working with tornante to develop projects based on topps properties including garbage pail kids wacky packages dinosaurs attack mech warrior and attax . 8 topps europe ltd edit topps has a european division which is based in milton keynes uk . from this office products are launched across europe including spain france germany norway and italy . this division also co ordinates products launches across the numerous other international markets including the far east australia and south africa . in 1994 merlin acquired the premier league license allowing the company to exclusively publish the only official premier league sticker and album collection in the uk . the initial success of the premier league stickers and album collection was so great that it took even merlin by surprise with reprint after reprint being produced . in 1995 the topps company inc. completed its takeover of merlin publishing . merlin s official company name changed to topps europe limited its products still carried the merlin brand until 2008 as it was easily recognized by consumers . topps europe limited continues to produce a wide and varied range of sports and entertainment collectables across europe . its range of products now includes stickers albums cards and binders magazines stationery and temporary tattoos . topps europe ltd products edit topps europe ltd has continued to launch hugely successful products across europe . some of the most successful licenses have included wwe pok mon doctor who high school musical and spongebob . premier league stickers and albums are now in their 18th year . match attax the official premier league trading card game is the biggest selling boys collectable in the uk two years running . being sold across the globe in a number of countries the collection also holds the title of the biggest selling sports collectable in the world . it is estimated that around 1.5 million children collect it in the uk and 2.5 million children in the world . in the spring of 2008 topps acquired the exclusive rights to the dfl deutsche fussball liga gmbh for trading cards and stickers until the bundesliga season 2010 11 . bundesliga match attax was launched in january 2009 and is now available in over 40 000 stockists . the collection is the first of its kind in germany and has become one of the biggest selling collections in the country . as of february 2016 topps match attax dominated the secondary uk card trading market occupying two out of the top three spots on the www.stickerpoints.com most popular soccer collection list . 9 topps baseball cards a history edit entry into the baseball card market edit in 1951 topps produced its first baseball cards in two different sets known today as red backs and blue backs . each set contained 52 cards like a deck of playing cards and in fact the cards could be used to play a game that would simulate the events of a baseball game . also like playing cards the cards had rounded corners