The reason for the acquisition of Topps - the trading card company - by former Disney (DIS) CEO Michael Eisner and his investment company Tornante, is beginning to unfold, and it's far more ambitious than I originally thought.
We've talked in the past about one strategy Eisner has, which is to use the old cartoon character Bazooka Joe as the equivalent of Mickey Mouse for Disney, to build a lot of branded content around ... and offer it across a variety of media platforms.
The American market is pretty much a mature market, as it relates to trading cards and the additional products connected to them. With that in mind, Eisner has an international strategy in place to make Topps a global brand.
One of the tools Eisner will use to make this a reality, is the existing 13-year licensing deal with the Premier League, a popular football (soccer) league throughout Europe and Asia. That is already a huge built-in branding advantage for Topps, which can be piggybacked via the League. It pretty much makes the company a key global competitor in its market from the start.
Another development that will be a big part of growing the company, is "eTopps," an online sports marketplace where new trading cards can be traded and tracked. Eisner and Topps will be working with eBay (EBAY) in the project. Eisner's hope here is to make it a real world market and tool where parents can teach their children how to invest, using sports as a vehicle.
Eisner believes eTopps has the potential to be the place to go for children to learn about the financial markets.
One other side benefit of acquiring Topps when he did, was the launch of a popular trading card game called "Match Attax," which is a craze in England at this time. About 50 percent of boys in England play the game at this time.
What Eisner is attempting to do with his own media empire, is make the whole greater than the individual parts. "I love synergy. If you look at Disney, there's ABC with ESPN, or High School Musical on the Disney Channel and Disney records," he said. "It's the whole idea of creating something greater than the individual parts."
The various strengths coming with the acquisition of Topps, along with his other properties like Prom Queen and animated program featuring traveling dentist Glen Martin DDS, makes it look like Eisner is laying the foundation to build his own Disney. It's a lot of fun to watch his strategy unfold and the progress he is making.
Now I wonder if there's going to be a theme park thrown in their any time soon?
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