The big moment has come for TCGplayer, a Syracuse-based startup that has developed an online marketplace for non-sports trading cards.
Company CEO Chedy Hampson announced Monday that eBay will acquire the company for a total deal value of up to $295 million. The acquisition is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2023.
The news will reverberate throughout the central and western New York startup community. Hampson is a well-known entrepreneur who turned his company around after laying off 15% of his 200-person workforce in 2019. TCG’s downtown Syracuse headquarters are in a formerly moribund urban mall, complete with themed rooms to honor the fantasy fiction that inspires their business.
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And the business is expected to remain rooted in Syracuse with Hampson continuing as CEO, he wrote in a memo to stakeholders this morning.
“We will have the autonomy and flexibility to continue running TCGplayer just as we always have, and I will continue to lead the Company as CEO, ensuring our commitment to you and the entire collectibles community remains enshrined and protected long into the future,” Hampson wrote.
He noted that all 688 of the company’s employees will share in the financial rewards of the deal as a result of the company’s stock option plan.
The deal will have a big effect in Buffalo, as well, where about a dozen “TCGplayers” work. That includes company chief technology officer Ross Winston, a Buffalonian who was recruited from Synacor to TCG in 2018. Other Buffalo-based TCG employees who will get a glimpse of a tech liquidity event include Jay Gerland, software engineering manager; Garrett Hodgson, DevOps manager; and Ginny Rey, vice president of people development.
Finally, the TCG acquisition is a big moment for Jack Greco, the co-founder of ACV Auctions-turned-angel investor, who has said TCG is the biggest investment in his expansive portfolio.
As an investor, Greco characterized the deal broadly as a “nice exit.”
He said that Hampson placed a priority on all TCG stakeholders through the sales process, including the fate of his employees and his company as a symbol of the potential of tech in Syracuse.
In that way, he drew a comparison between TCGplayer and ACV.
“This is an another Upstate marketplace that is going to fundamentally change the ecosystem it’s in for the long-term,” Greco said. “EBay is a Fortune 500 company, and we’re going to be bringing talent in from elsewhere to see what we have going on here.”
