End of An Era

[RYP]

Some of you may remember that I created the Upper Deck product, marketing, designs, business plans etc back in 1988 - 1992 taking them from an idea to $160M in sales. When we parted company they crashed and I worked for Topps.

They were busted before for counterfeiting some of the cards I had designed and it looks like the current owner just doesn't know when to stop :))


Upper Deck Laying Off 119 Workers

Friday, May 7, 2010

The Upper Deck Co., a Carlsbad-based maker of sports trading cards, will lay off 119 workers effective May 10, according to a company filing with the California Employment Development Department.

The company notified the state in March under the 60-day notice requirement of the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, program. The layoffs follow a January round of 33 job cuts at the company, according to the EDD’s Web site.

Company spokesman Terry Melia said the job cuts were needed to “right-size” Upper Deck’s work force after recent changes in its license portfolio.

Upper Deck declined to disclose its post-layoff employment numbers, but said early this year that it had 250 employees.

The layoffs come amid a series of business and legal setbacks for Upper Deck during the past year.

Upper Deck in January reached a confidential settlement with Konami Digital Media, after Konami sued the Carlsbad company for counterfeiting some of its Yu-Gi-Oh fantasy-game trading cards.

In March, the card company agreed to pay Major League Baseball Properties Inc. a “substantial sum” plus more than $2.4 million to settle earlier debts, resolving a lawsuit that accused Upper Deck of using the league’s logos without permission.

The company last year lost its license to use the Major League Baseball logo and team uniform images on cards, after the league awarded an exclusive contract to a major rival, The Topps Co. Inc.

— Lou Hirsh