Disney Buys Marvel

[sherlew (Ret)]

Link to article

Disney Buys Marvel: Comic Book Fans Everywhere Die Little Deaths

Genevieve Valentine



Through the power of the internet, all secrets are brought at once to light: Disney has acquired Marvel in a $4 billion dollar deal. (License for Wolverine was $3 billion of those dollars; Silver Surfer went for 75 cents and a jelly doughnut.)

Disney, already an entertainment juggernaut (that’s one!), has been devouring other properties for years, including television networks ABC and ESPN. Grabbing a property like Marvel means that Disney can begin to do what it does best: brainstorm corporate crossovers until every writer’s assistant has had their first coronary!

It’s marginally too soon to say how Disney’s ownership will affect Marvel’s titles over time, though it’s safe to say that Disney’s hulking presence (that’s two!) will probably be serving as a sentinel (that’s three!) for a more family-friendly series of books. Whether this means the creations of new comics properties or subtle synergies like X-Men #220: Hannah Montana IS Dazzler! is yet to be determined.

On one hand, Disney’s insistence on making blandly acceptable fare might be a detriment to some titles tackling serious issues. On the other hand, Disney’s worldwide marketing stranglehold on the young female demographic means that girls might finally become a desirable audience for comics. (On the other other hand, given what Disney currently markets to girls, maybe this isn’t such a blessing.)

Things to look forward to under the new regime:

- New on ABC Family: Radical “Rogue” Miller, Mutant Sophomore!

- ESPN Presents: various sporting events with costumed characters caddying, delivering water and/or visiting swift and painful justice to all dishonorable athletes! Hulk said ball out of bounds, dammit!

- A Spider Man Musical! (Which basically proves that this cash-scrabbling buyout was inevitable, since you’re much too late for that, little one. Much too late.)

So, what say you? Has Disney’s buyout signaled the end of Marvel as we know it, or will Marvel rise from Disney’s clutches like a phoenix? (That’s four, and I’m done!)

Genevieve Valentine is an incurable movie and TV nerd whose fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Federations, and more. Her first novel is forthcoming from Prime Books. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog.

[sherlew (Ret)]

Here's another article on the take-over from Yahoo News

Link



Disney to buy comic book powerhouse Marvel for $4B
AP


By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima, Ap Business Writer


LOS ANGELES – 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.

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 television 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 $9.91, or 26 percent, to $48.56 in midday trading Monday. Disney shares fell 82 cents, or 3 percent, to $26.02.

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

Although it began producing its own movies, starting with "Iron Man" last year, Marvel has several deals with other movie studios that Disney said it will honor and re-examine upon expiration.

For example, "Spider-Man 4," set for release in 2011, is being made with Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures; "Iron Man 2" will be distributed by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures next year; and the upcoming "X-Men Origins: Magneto" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2," both due in 2011, are to be distributed by News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox.

Iger said Pixar also had third-party licensing agreements that eventually expired, allowing the companies to move forward together.

Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million in its last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million.

Disney said the acquisition will hurt its earnings per share by a mid-single digit percentage in fiscal 2010 but be positive in 2012. That is partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares and partly because of the timing of Marvel releases such as "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" in 2011.

[pickinduck]

I've missed comic books for a long time.
When I was young there was so many stores that had them on shelves. I mostly went for the spooky ones and I had several Ghost Rider ones. I wish that I still had them

[Tomspy77]

That is just terrible, although I doubt they will change the Marvel ways too much, especially as Stan Lee is till alive. Like Disney himself, they have to wait for the main creator to pass before mucking about with his intellectual property.

spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com/
^^ That by the way is just scary!
*Music by Bono and the Edge??*

[joepyne]

Does this mean that Thor will have to now wear mouse ears?

[sherlew (Ret)]

Whoever could make him do that?

Yeah, I agree that a Spiderman musical is downright scary. If the Disney corporation is smart, they're wont muck about with things too much. We'll see, though.

[Tomspy77]

Sept 1, 2009 9:46:50 GMT -6 joepyne said:

Does this mean that Thor will have to now wear mouse ears?

No, but it does mean that the Incredible Hulk will have to fill in for Black Pete when there are two promo parties at the same time.

[thewatcher]

Two totally different blokes...

[sherlew (Ret)]

Indubitably

[Tomspy77]

True, but it is all I could come up with to keep the thread going.