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Disney to buy Marvel Entertainment

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Dec 29, 2003
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A bit of a Apple/Pixar/Steve Jobs connection here...

LINK

Disney to buy comic book powerhouse Marvel for $4B

Disney to get Spider-Man, Iron Man and other Marvel characters in $4 billion deal

By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it 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, Disney will acquire ownership of 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.

Analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. said the acquisition will help Disney appeal to young men who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel's superhero fare in recent years. That contrasts with Disney's recent successes among young women with such fare as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.

"It helps Disney add exposure to a young male demographic it had sort of lost some balance with," Joyce said, noting the $4 billion offer was at "full price."

Disney said 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 jumped $10.17, or 26 percent, to $48.82 shortly after the market opened. Disney shares fell 47 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $26.37.

Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

Disney last made a big purchase in 2006 when it acquired Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the creator of the "Toy Story" franchise, for $7.4 billion in stock.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said the latest acquisition combines Marvel's "strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters" with Disney's "unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties" and ability to maximize value across multiple platforms and territories.

Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million, as it took movie production in house instead of just cutting licensing deals.
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Um, so basically Universal Studios/Adventure Island has to close all of its Marvel rides?

Or now Disney gets a cut of Universal's sales?

Wow. :rolleyes:
 
Sdashiki said:
Um, so basically Universal Studios/Adventure Island has to close all of its Marvel rides?
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There's more to this than the Islands of Adventure theme park in Florida, but that was my immediate reaction too.

This is crazy.
 
jessica. said:
Great. There goes Marvel. :rolleyes:
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Maybe…
But it is possible that Disney wanted to diversify their entertainment portfolio and own something that appeals to a different demographic than their current offerings. Thus, they could let Marvel carry on doing what they do best in order to have access to a different set of customers.
 
orbital~debris said:
Maybe…
But it is possible that Disney wanted to diversify their entertainment portfolio and own something that appeals to a different demographic than their current offerings. Thus, they could let Marvel carry on doing what they do best in order to have access to a different set of customers.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think the initial comments from Disney are that Marvel will remain a completely autonomous entity under the Disney umbrella of brands.
 
Disney has been licensing Marvel proprieties for their cable channels for awhile. I noticed X-Men (the old 90's cartoon) was on Jetix/Toon Disney (or whatever it's called now) a few months ago and the Hulk was on ABC Family recently.
 
Great day to own MVL. I own a handful of shares, and they shot through the roof today: a positive note on an otherwise bad day for the street. Apparently I'll get paid $30 for each of my shares plus get .75 shares of disney for each of my Marvel shares. Awesome deal, especially since DIS is dividend-bearing and MVL isn't. It's a free upgrade :).

As for Marvel the company itself... I actually don't think it's all doom and gloom. Remember Disney has adult lines, like Pirates of the Carribean. Marvel will help them flesh out that side of their product line.
 
jaw04005 said:
There's more to this than the Islands of Adventure theme park in Florida, but that was my immediate reaction too.

This is crazy.
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All of the Six Flags theme parks, too. I guess we will have a Disneyland New England now.
 
To the folks complaining about this: I could be wrong but I think Marvel was owned by Revlon in the 80s or 90s. Do you really think Disney would be a worse corporate parent?
 
jzuena said:
All of the Six Flags theme parks, too. I guess we will have a Disneyland New England now.
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Six Flags is DC Comics, not Marvel.

Actually, Six Flags is Warner Brothers, which owns DC Comics, hence, the Looney Tunes theme at the parks as well.
 
"Iger and others announcing the deal this morning had little to say about Marvel's current arrangement with Universal Orlando, which has an entire theme-park area, Marvel Super Hero Island, dedicated to Marvel characters. Universal's contracts apparently gives it exclusive U.S. rights east of the Mississippi River for theme-park attractions built around certain of those characters, notably Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men and Dr. Doom.

'Marvel Super Hero Island at Universal's Islands of Adventure and the Marvel characters are a beloved and important part of the Universal Orlando experience. They will remain so,' said Tom Schroder, a Universal spokesman. 'Our guests are going to get to meet Spider-Man and all our other Marvel characters. We believe our agreement with Marvel stands and that the Disney/Marvel deal will have no impact on our guest experience.'"

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-bk-disney-marvel-entertainment-083109,0,2559631.story

Yeah, right. Universal. I say Disney will give them until the end of their current contract then cut them off.

A Marvel theme park would be a gold mine for Disney, and lord knows they have the space to build it at Walt Disney World in Florida.
 
There could be some potential cool crossovers. The possibilities are endless!
- Peter Parker dumps Mary Jane for his true love, Hannah Montana.
- The Joans Brothers team up with the Fantastic Four to thwart Dr Doom's vile plan to take over the Band Slam.
- Did somebody say, Superhero Musical?
 
NC MacGuy said:
But what about Universal Studios? They have parks that directly compete w. Disney in Fl & CA.
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As I posted above, the Marvel deal would only affect one of Universal's parks. Universal thinks they'll be OK as part of their current licensing deal with Marvel. However, Iger and Disney's management side-stepped the Islands of Adventure question when asked this morning.

Peace said:
I see comic books coming to the Apple device.
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They already are. Marvel and Apple announced a deal back in February to sell "motion comics" on the iTunes Store. Additionally, many of their original animated series (X-Men: The Animated Series, Spider-Man, etc) are now on iTunes.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/02/marvel-to-sell-motion-comics-via-itunes-store.ars
 
jaw04005 said:
As I posted above, the Marvel deal would only affect one of Universal's parks. Universal thinks they'll be OK as part of their current licensing deal with Marvel. However, Iger and Disney's management side-stepped the Islands of Adventure question when asked this morning.



They already are. Marvel and Apple announced a deal back in February to sell "motion comics" on the iTunes Store. Additionally, many of their original animated series (X-Men: The Animated Series, Spider-Man, etc) are now on iTunes.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/02/marvel-to-sell-motion-comics-via-itunes-store.ars
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You got it right. I had the reply to window open while your post was being posted.:p

Agreed, Universal is screwed. A shame since I like Universal better since they serve beer.;)
 
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