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- Slam, the SPAC led by Alex Rodriguez, is exploring a merger with Italy's Panini, Bloomberg said.
- The transaction could value the combined company at $3 billion.
- Panini is famous in the soccer world for its collections of stickers and trading cards.
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Alex Rodriguez's blank-check company Slam Corp is in discussions to merge with Italian sticker and sports trading-card collectibles brand Panini, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The deal hasn't been finalized yet, but could value the combined unit at $3 billion, Bloomberg said, citing one source.
Panini, named after the brothers who founded it, was established in 1961 in Modena, Italy. It made its first FIFA World Cup stickers for the 1970 soccer tournament in Mexico, making trading cards and sticker collections a part of the experience ever since. Some rare stickers can fetch high prices on the collectors' market and at auction.
Sales for Panini, which also publishes children's books and comics in Europe and Latin America, hit the $1 billion mark in 2018.
The publishing house has been exploring a possible sale and drew interest from bidders including private equity firms, Bloomberg said in February.
Rodriguez's Slam, which raised $575 million at its February public debut, is a special-purpose acquisition company focused on targets in the "sports, media, entertainment, health and wellness, and consumer technology sectors," according to an SEC filing.
SPACs don't follow traditional IPO protocols. They allow companies to go public more quickly because they rely less on company history and revenue, and more on the management team. They typically aim to first secure a stock-market listing, after which a target company is identified to merge with in order to secure more certainty and control on pricing and deal terms.
Around $113 billion has already been raised across 368 SPAC IPOs year-to-date, according to data from SPACInsider.com, far exceeding last year's count of 248.
Slam and Panini didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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