CNN: Fanatics buying Topps trading card business for $500 million

If you can't beat 'em, get bought by 'em.

Trading card giant Topps — just a few months after losing out on a deal to renew its longtime licensing deal with Major League Baseball to sports apparel startup Fanatics — is now selling its collectibles and cards business to ... Fanatics.

Sources close to the deal told CNN Business that Fanatics was paying $500 million for the more than 80-year-old Topps, which started out as a chewing gum company in 1938 and began selling baseball cards in 1951.

Fanatics had been set to become the exclusive trading cards licensee for MLB in 2025, when Topps' deal with the league was set to expire. But Fanatics said Tuesday that as a result of the Topps acquisition, it will immediately begin to design, manufacture and distribute baseball cards.