Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

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Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Postby Lord Akiyama » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:41 am

Courtesy of Yahoo

The Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.

Under the deal, which was announced Monday and is expected to close by the end of the year, Disney will acquire the rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said Marvel's comic books, TV shows, movies and video games amounted to "a treasure trove of content." Iger said the deal would bring benefits like the ones Disney got from buying "Toy Story" creator Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006.

"The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy," Iger said, and "to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts."

For Marvel, Iger said being in the Disney camp would mean better global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell its products. Another storied comic book maker, DC Comics, has been under the wings of a major studio since 1969, when Warner Bros. bought the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Marvel Chairman Mort Handel called Disney "a perfect home for our great collection of characters."

One point of the deal is to help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel superheroes such as Iron Man in recent years. That contrasts with Disney's recent successes among young women with such fare as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.

Marvel TV shows also already account for 20 hours per week of programming on Disney's recently rebranded, boy-focused cable network, Disney XD, and that looks likely to increase, Iger said. The shows are "right in the wheelhouse for boys," he said.

However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that that the $4 billion offer was at "full price."

Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday's closing stock prices.

Marvel shares shot up $9.77, or 25 percent, to $48.42 in afternoon trading Monday. Disney shares fell 79 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $26.05.

Disney investors were probably unhappy to learn that the deal will reduce its earnings per share in the short term and might not turn positive until its 2012 fiscal year. Marvel is profitable
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Re: Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Postby Souf Centrol » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:04 pm

Disney is about to kill the marvel name, I can see them spammin evrything. Making it all kiddy, I fear the future
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Re: Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Postby Lord Akiyama » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:23 pm

They're not gonna touch the books. The main reason for the purchase was to get the young male demographic and they obviously know that to maintain that demographic they need to leave the creativity be. Bob Iger is turning into quite the business man. Recognizing what works and let's it flow while all he has to do is say, "Hey everyone, check this out."
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Re: Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Postby CheMateo » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:49 pm

Souf Centrol wrote:Disney is about to kill the marvel name, I can see them spammin evrything. Making it all kiddy, I fear the future
I wouldn't worry about that. In some respects Marvel has already screwed up some of their own creations. Disney is a conglomerate and many non kid-friendly material has come from their umbrella.

I can see two positives already. 1. Marvel films will now have the promotional juggernaut (hopefully Cain Marko as well) of Disney behind them. 2. Marvel related attractions at Disneyland.
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Re: Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Postby Souf Centrol » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:01 am

I really hope that's as far as it goes. I hope they don't take liberties with the storyline like origins: wolverine *shivers at the thought*

Also marvel wasn't the one who messed up their own things, its always been the movie companies trying to change things thinking it will make it maore interesting in turn bring in more money

X-men evolution was successful but I don't know how much input disney had on it. It was on their channel though
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Re: Disney to buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Postby Lord Akiyama » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:03 am

Souf Centrol wrote:X-men evolution was successful but I don't know how much input disney had on it. It was on their channel though


Disney had nothing to do the series other than picking up the rights when it was available after the series ended.
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