Disney buys Marvel

[The Grim Squeaker]

The Walt Disney Company has agreedto acquire Marvel Entertainment in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced this morning. Under the terms of the agreement and based on last week’s closing price of Disney, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the total transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

Under the deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its portfolio of over 5,000 Marvel characters. That portfolio includes many familiar names like Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor.

Says Disney CEO Robert A. Iger in a statement: “We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.”

Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s CEO, added: “Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses. This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”

Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties.

[Crazedwraith]

oh wow. Was Marvel in trouble before this then?

[Solauren]

Will we be seeing the X-mansion as a attraction at Disney Land then?

I also have this mental image of Mickey Mouse with Wolverine claws....

Edit:
Turns out, I'm not the first person to have that idea...

[The Spartan]

I also have this mental image of Mickey Mouse with Wolverine claws....

Someone get Hav on this now. If only for the sheer hilarity of seeing something like that.

Edit: Yeah, that's not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking something more gritty. That's why I suggested Hav.

[Drooling Iguana]

Will we be seeing the X-mansion as a attraction at Disney Land then?

I also have this mental image of Mickey Mouse with Wolverine claws....

They've already got him transforming into Optimus Prime, so this wouldn't be too surprising.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Maybe the Marvel movies weren't delivering the revenue required to survive? How bad is the comic book business now?

[VF5SS]

Maybe the Marvel movies weren't delivering the revenue required to survive? How bad is the comic book business now?

Pretty dismal. Marvel especially has been pricing itself to oblivion. It doesn't help that you get less out a single issue than buying one volume of some popular manga.

[Straha]

Maybe the Marvel movies weren't delivering the revenue required to survive? How bad is the comic book business now?

Actually, I bet you it's the opposite. The movies seem to routinely make a killing, but the comics aren't. Disney has an entire in-house Movie production company and can crank out Super-Hero movies, and distribute them, far more profitably than Marvel is doing now. So Disney comes along and figures out this is a company where it can maximize the pre-existing profits through synergy, and eventually minimize losses by cutting unprofitable lines. (Also, Disney can now use Marvel characters for cartoon series without having to pay Marvel every time for the right.)

[Anguirus]

Hopefully this will lead to a Kingdom Hearts sequel of insane awesomeness.

[General Zod]

Hopefully this will lead to a Kingdom Hearts sequel of insane awesomeness.

I was just thinking earlier that this would mean we can expect to see Marvel characters in upcoming Kingdom Hearts games.

[NeoGoomba]

I wonder what sort of Marvel-based video games they are going to hand over to Warren Spector now.

[Simon_Jester]

I just hope the quality of the movies doesn't start to go downhill. I'm not sure what to expect out of this.

[neoolong]

I would hope that Marvel Studios would stay mostly independent on creative issues, with Disney acting as a distributor and bank. Basically like Pixar, where they are in effect, separate entities.

[AMT]

I wonder what this means for Universal Orlando. It has a pretty good sized chunk of its park dedicated to Marvel. I don't see Disney letting their Orlando competitor keeping that.

[Stofsk]

I just hope the quality of the movies doesn't start to go downhill. I'm not sure what to expect out of this.

The quality of Marvel movies hasn't been all that high anyway.

[neoolong]

I wonder what this means for Universal Orlando. It has a pretty good sized chunk of its park dedicated to Marvel. I don't see Disney letting their Orlando competitor keeping that.

They'd have to let the contracts run out I'd imagine.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I just hope the quality of the movies doesn't start to go downhill. I'm not sure what to expect out of this.

The higher end live-action Marvel movies probably won't change much at all, because they're proven moneymakers and the main reason that Disney acquired Marvel in the first place. Even the shitty ones typically showed at least some profit after the foreign market receipts came in (Punisher: War Zone being a major exception), and Spider-Man, the most best performer, cleared like 1.9 billion overall. There's a shit-ton of money to be made, and the formula already works, so I don't see Disney messing with it too much. I wouldn't worry about them "Disneyfying" the films because they already run lots of films under the Touchstone imprint that often aren't at all Disney-style. The only problem I can see is that perhaps they acquired the rights after Marvel had blown its load on the very best development prospects, but there's still some work to be done, Captain America being the major example (though I'm not sure about how that'll perform in the foreign market ).

Something that might be more likely to change could be more animated projects based on Marvel properties running as series on Disney's various television networks and in straight-to-video animated features.

The quality of Marvel movies hasn't been all that high anyway.

Yeah, seriously. People think of aberrations like Iron Man, X-Men, and Spiderman, which were at best fun summer blockbusters, and they tend to forget about Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra, et al.

[neoolong]

Those weren't Marvel Studios produced movies however. Only Iron Man and Incredible Hulk were.

[une]

Wow, this is surprising. Marvel has been doing well in pretty much every area recently. It's publishing division has been making a steady profit and the film division has also been doing well. I wonder what brought about this turn of events.

[ArmorPierce]

I just hope the quality of the movies doesn't start to go downhill. I'm not sure what to expect out of this.

The quality of Marvel movies hasn't been all that high anyway.

There's only been two so far and I thought that they were pretty damn good.

Yeah, seriously. People think of aberrations like Iron Man, X-Men, and Spiderman, which were at best fun summer blockbusters, and they tend to forget about Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Elektra, et al.

err... except for iron man none of those movies were made by marvel.

[Havok]

Yeah, as far as Marvel Studios goes, Iron Man and Hulk were great and pretty good respectively. We'll see how well they do with the upcoming titles.
If they have the same autonomy as Pixar, they should be OK.

Fox fucked up both the big franchises in Spider-Man and X-Men and their longevity is in limbo. Fantastic Four, was well... the Fantastic Four. It has always been campy and silly and the movies lived up to that, but I wouldn't say they were bad examples of Marvel based movies.

I'm don't remember who made Daredevil, Elektra and Ghost Rider, but yeah, I don't think they are employed anymore.

Don't forget Blade. They were all pretty good, if a little silly at times. As was the first Hulk.

Overall, Marvel's movies, no matter the studio, have been profitable and pretty good.

As far as Disney/Marvel fanfic art goes? I think I will pass.

[The Spartan]

As far as Disney/Marvel fanfic art goes? I think I will pass.

My evil plan! Foiled!

[General Zod]

Fox fucked up both the big franchises in Spider-Man and X-Men and their longevity is in limbo. Fantastic Four, was well... the Fantastic Four. It has always been campy and silly and the movies lived up to that, but I wouldn't say they were bad examples of Marvel based movies.

I'm guessing nobody remembers the 1980s Captain America flicks with the goofy rubber wings. Or David Hasslehoff as Nick Fury?

[Havok]

The Hoff. Man that movie was so horrible.

I think it is safe to assume we are all talking about the current crop of Marvel movies, starting with Blade.

[OmegaChief]

I'm guessing nobody remembers the 1980s Captain America flicks with the goofy rubber wings. Or David Hasslehoff as Nick Fury?

It was apparently from the 90s