Disney to Buy Marvel Entertainment for $4 Billion

Source: The New York Times

The Walt Disney Company said on Monday that it has agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment, bringing together the house of Mickey Mouse with the publisher of Spider-Man, for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Under the terms of the deal, Disney will pay $30 a share in cash and .745 Disney shares for every Marvel share, with no less than 40 percent of the deal being made in stock. Disney valued the deal at $50 a share as of the companies’ share prices on Friday.

Isaac Perlmutter, Marvel’s chief executive, will continue to oversee his company’s properties, including more than 5,000 characters that also include Iron Man and the X-Men.

Marvel has had a string of successful movies based on its characters, which analysts have praised in part for the company’s taking an active role in their production.

Read more: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/disney-to-buy-marvel-entertainment-for-4-billion/

astonishing strength or attribute as well as some human frailty.

If anyone is going to make a purchase of this magnitude, those fictional, imaginal characters deserve top dollar.

As long as the characters' "handlers" retain artistic control... etc.

Disney is a fantastic corporation and has been responsible for some of the greatest moments in entertainment, indeed in all human endeavors, of the past 100 years. There can be little doubt that Marvel will only benefit from this amalgamation.

Dr. Strange, the username, the avatar, the poster, and all of his posts are ® © and ™ Disney, Inc 2009

I think your point about Disney's respect for great characters is likely true, and it's encouraging.

Edited to add:

I'm only interested if they have an exact body double of Hugh Jackman ;)

Marvel has made some BAD movies and some great ones. Disney has done the same.

I think this will be bad.

They will be turned into charactures of their former selves. Image an all fluffy bunny spiderman.

Marvel gonna get all Disney-fied.

Ah well, it was a good run.

If Marvel had not already been disney-fied, they would not be interested in buying it - why would they want to pick up something that was contrary to the image they want to portray? Marvel is the new Disney, so Disney wants it.

As a long time Marvel shareholder I am more than a little dismayed at this news.
I despise monopoly capitalism and behemoth corporations like Disney.

dancing with Sneezy and Dopey.


sheesh....

Animated or live-action... I'd pay to see it.

TlalocW

They have the Hulk and the Spider man ride. I wonder what the agreement was, and if they will continue to be Marvel themed rides.

will Marvel Island survive?

I can see it now.

wow.

I'm sure Disney was seething when Universal snagged Harry Potter right underneath their nose. Now they've done the same to Universal. Wonder when that license renewal comes up at Islands of Adventure? Universal will now have to spend cash to rebrand that section.

As for Marvel under the Disney umbrella, seeing Spider Man dancing along side of Mickey would be a disaster....AND I think Disney is smart enough to realize that. But, I could see a Marvel Theme Park going up in Florida.

another link?

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/disney-to-buy-marvel-for-4-billion/

found it on the error page linked

I loved Marvel because it recognized the darker and more human motives behind superheroes. Disney is likely to dumb it down. Or maybe it'll smarten them up. One can only hope.

wonder how this will affect them

Disney still tries to portray the family-friendly image. They'll get rid the series the first chance they get, or castrate the edge of the comic series.

I still can't believe this shit.

I think they should have to trade Lilo and Stitch for it

they need something, anything, even remotely creative.

Don't worry, Dizzy will whittle down Spidey too...

eom.

of course, if they leave Raimi alone, they can have ongoing spectacularness, like Pixar (especially now that Farqua Ballm--er, Eisner's gone
on edit: LIEEEEEFEEEELD!!!!

I don't think this'll be initially bad, though it's weird, given Disney's conservative streak and the fact that Marvel has always been liberal. Disney played nice with SLG and the Disney properties they handle, and Disney has Ahmet Zappa creating their Kingdom Comics line:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080529-disney-kingdom-comics.html

things, and allow things to be in the comics as the writers & editors decide, then it won't be so bad, just the media things like cartoons and movies will be very 'safe'. You won't see the Punisher brand of justice at Hollywood Studios (where the characters will be, or in their own new park, but that may be asking too much) or openly Gay superhero Northstar (from Alpha Flight & Xmen lore), but they will be left alone in print - or I will not buy any more books.

I do look forward to parades at Hollywood Studios with Chip n Dale dressed up as Thor & Loki, or Stitch or Mickey Mouse as Wolverine! ha....

Funny pic.

the satirical fanart that has come out of this in the last day or so is great:

http://ormery.livejournal.com/559999.html
http://raheight.deviantart.com/art/Marvel-Future-Duck-Ock-135430656
http://raheight.deviantart.com/art/Future-of-Marvel-135424046
http://twitpic.com/fzqqa/full

Source: AP

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."


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090831/ap_on_bi_ge/us_disney_marvel_entertainment;_ylt=AlaE7FB0yiDzmrB2K2XzgINbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTMxOWdndHVjBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwODMxL3VzX2Rpc25leV9tYXJ2ZWxfZW50ZXJ0YWlubWVudARjcG9zAzQEcG9zAzQEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNk

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Is there nothing Disney doesn't poison in our culture?

I love Marvel Comics. No. No.

S-P-I
I see you breaking the law Doc Ock!
D-E-R
Are you going to come quietly, or will I have to catch you with my webbing?
M-O-U-S-E

If anyone wants to see what Disney thinks as reality - tune into one of their channels and watch the WASPfest. Bonus to anyone who can point out the halcyon players.

I like Disney's products, and I like Marvel's products, but they shouldn't be mixed. I hope we don't lose the integrity of the Marvel universe for the sake of corporate greed.

can't say I'm familiar with Marvel's current offerings, but I can't imagine Disney putting out content that would get me reading again.

...hello crappy sequels.

:)

C'mon... Admit it. You want to see that.

TlalocW

Posted earlier already:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4039927

is this might lead to Zombie Mickey Mouse.

royalties

I'll have to delve deeper into why.

and there's nothing more uncool in the teen boy universe than Disney.

It makes sense. He's probably imagining all of his favorite Superheros doing High School Musical 4. LOL

Creativity is like a force of nature. It can't be contained the way bean counters want it to be.

Michael Eisner was quietly asked to step down because the script for the Lord of the Rings trilogy was peddled first at one of Disney's movie studios, but he turned down the offer.

A rival company fished up the script. Disney lost out on billions of dollars of profit that the trilogy generated. Eisner still runs Disney. He may no longer be CEO, but he owns a majority of Disney's shares. He can simply veto anything he doesn't like on the Board of Directors.

He also drove out Katzenberg, the luminary producer behind movies like the Lion King, Toy Story, and Aladdin. He saw Katzenberg as a threat to his own power base.

exploit, overcharge...

I used to be a big fan of both companies. Disney lost me when they began creating product first and then making a film of it. Marvel lost me when Kirby left. Bringing him back didn't help. IMHO, since neither company can actually get worse, perhaps this will see some improvement, though I doubt they will win me back.

FAIL

Disney Channel. it's gonna be great.
:eyes:

I'm for the other team

now be known as the Funisher.

As a life-long comics collector I just don't writers and artists interfered with.

It could mean more movies, more cartoons and more financial stability for Marvel.


EXCELSIOR!

right wing christianian morality groups will now monitor every Marvel comic published to find "offensive" material Disney is selling to kids.
(Of course the fact that most comics are read by adults will go unnoticed).
The corporate push to limit controversy will have a quiet but still chilling effect.

I do not want to say Disney or Marvel is a Clunker, but just an observation on how little money went into the Cash for Clunker program that Disney is paying the same amount of money for Marvel as Congress provided for the Cash for Clunkers program.