Fanatics continued its massive expansion across the sports memorabilia landscape Monday, announcing it had reached agreement to acquire the bulk of Steiner Sports.
According to multiple business media outlets, the deal includes Steiner’s name, inventory and some intellectual property. Sports Business Daily reported that the deal does not include Steiner’s athlete contracts. Steph Curry and Aaron Rodgers are among numerous exclusive Steiner clients.
Steiner employees were reportedly notified of the sale over the weekend and on Monday, Brandon Steiner emailed associates stating he “will no longer be accepting emails at Steiner Sports.”
Steiner was founded for $8,000 in 1987 by New York native Brandon Steiner as an athlete marketing company. He later expanded into memorabilia, selling autographed items. In 2000, the company was sold to Omnicom for $25 million but Steiner remained in charge of daily operations as CEO. In 2005, Steiner Sports reached a deal with the New York Yankees to become the club’s exclusive distributor of game-used items and later made similar agreements with the Boston Red Sox, Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame, Syracuse and other entities.
According to Sports Business Journal, there will be a 60-day transition period before Fanatics finalizes the takeover of Steiner.
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