Disney buys Marvel

Originally Posted by Globe and Mail

The Walt Disney Co. (DIS-N26.16-0.68-2.53%) said Monday it is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. (MVL-N48.619.9625.77%) for $4-billion (U.S.) in cash and stock, bringing characters like 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 theatres to see Marvel's superheroes 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 per cent, to $48.82 shortly after the market opened. Disney shares fell 47 cents, or 1.8 per cent, 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 chief executive officer Robert Iger said the 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.

Have to say, this one caught me a little off guard. I'll agree that its a sensible move for Disney in terms of audience extension... but I'm not sure I can make sense of them targeting the neckbeard demo in the first place. The press spin seems to imply that Disney sees Marvel purely in terms of its movies, which is not a good sign for comic book fans.

The ramifications are a bit frightening across the board. Marvel has ongoing dealings with other big Hollywood names (most notably its plethora of in-production movies with 20th Century Fox) which suddenly have shaky futures... on the other hand, we could now meet the X-men in Kingdom Hearts 3 or see Pixar/Stan Lee team up.

Whaddya think?

I am very surprised, actually. I just hope they don't **** up those movies.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !

As a fan of all things Marvel i must say that this news to me is awful! I hope they don't try and control them to much otherwise we'll be in trouble!

Now this is bullcrap!
I'd only assume that Disney would let Touchstone distribute most of the films, but what about the comics? I'm assuming they wouldn't really change.
This has to be one of the biggest **** yous in the history of the world.

Here's their next movie: Hannah Montana Meets the Jonas Brothers!!!!! (And they kill your favorite childhood superheroes)

Because of this Miley Cyrus is probably going to have the ongoing cameo of the Overreacting Citizen, and the Jonas Brothers will have their songs featured on the soundtracks.

But.... the marval movies are so good. I don't want to know how badly they're going to bugger things up.

Holy crap this is the most... wow. This is even more surprising than when Pixar took over Disney. I can only assume that Disney won't mess with the formula too much, but this will DEFINITELY affect things... my guess is that soon, you'll only be able to see Marvel-based cartoons on the Disney Channel. Which blows, frankly. I never had the faintest inkling that Marvel were in any financial difficulty - I assumed their self-produced movies like The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man did well at the box office. On the other hand, this could lead to an open floodgate of superhero movies, since Disney has the market share to handle the output. Plus, Pixar-quality CGI movies of the more difficult-to-film comic universes (like Silver Surfer's intergalactic journeys or Thor's adventures in Asgard) would be great. There's a huge back-catalogue of characters that may now get a showing. Though I doubt The Punisher will do well out of this.

EDIT: I just realised that Marvel vs DC has become Mickey vs Bugs.

Great, now Disney can rape my childhood even more than it already has. I can't wait to see spiderman and Hannah Montana team up to rid the world of crime.

Spider-Man scales Cinderella's Castle...at a theater near you!

Originally Posted by mmmmm_PIE

The press spin seems to imply that Disney sees Marvel purely in terms of its movies, which is not a good sign for comic book fans.

The ramifications are a bit frightening across the board. Marvel has ongoing dealings with other big Hollywood names (most notably its plethora of in-production movies with 20th Century Fox) which suddenly have shaky futures... on the other hand, we could now meet the X-men in Kingdom Hearts 3 or see Pixar/Stan Lee team up.

Whaddya think?

I think you need to read a little more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/bu...y.html?_r=1&hp

Marvel has aggressively exploited its most popular characters through motion pictures and consumer products, and has a thicket of deals with various studios that will stay in place. Twentieth Century Fox will continue with the “X-Men” franchise, for instance, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will keep “Spider-Man.”

And Paramount Pictures will continue to release Marvel’s “Iron Man” films — at least until that deal expires. So essentially Disney is in business with a trio of rival studios.

Disney sees a deep opportunity to immediately patch the Marvel characters into its other businesses, however. Marvel characters will be added to Disney’s theme parks, while consumer products will be a huge component, particularly internationally where Marvel has made fewer inroads.

Well obviously there can be no immediate breaches of contract; I mean, Iron Man 2 finished shooting a month ago AFAIK, and its not the kind of movie that can just vanish in post-production. Still, the idea that Disney will continue to let its holdings generate excessive revenue for its competition indefinitely is laughable; they'll either fight tooth and nail to bring those franchises under control or they'll attempt to choke them out. Either would take at least a decade, and neither would be much fun to watch.

Whoa. thats unexpected. hmmm....I really just...dont know what to say about that other than: Marketing Whores meets Uber Marketing Whores. Let the spam begin!

Yeah, it looks like Disney is trying to buy pretty much everything. The whole world will be known as "Disney" one day.

I just heard about this from a friend, and I have to say I am ****ing furious. What you said in the first post about them seeing Marvel in terms of its movies and not anything else seems pretty spot-on to me, and I don't fancy the idea of Disney cross-overs much either.

Maybe it's just because I haven't had my daily dose of caffeine but god damn it. I don't even like Marvel that much as it is, but I was JUST about to try and get into them by reading Civil War and maybe Secret Invasion after that.

Lord: not to get off topic but they are good stories. Also really if Disney wants to make money they should just let the people at Marvel continue to do what they want. Otherwise this money they're expecting won't be there!

Originally Posted by Oni Dark Link

Lord: not to get off topic but they are good stories. Also really if Disney wants to make money they should just let the people at Marvel continue to do what they want. Otherwise this money they're expecting won't be there!

Yes, exactly. Marvel is a gynormous cash cow the way it is right now. Disney isnt stupid, these guys know what they are doing and are going to continue to allow Marvel to operate the way it has for ages. Disney will merely put their names on it and all that fat profit goes to them! Thats probably the main reason behind the buy-out in the first place. I doubt Disney is gonna start mucking up Marvel by being overly PC or whatever.

Quoting myself from the thread in the GCC I saw first!

Originally Posted by nolan

...Yeah, this likely means little to the actual output of Marvel, and actually probably just guarantees that they'll be in business forever. Anyone with any grasp of how the entertainment world works should know that. But not everybody does, obviously. But now you know! Hooray!

Fun fact: DC Comics has been owned by Time Warner for forty years. Hasn't really negatively impacted them.

...Yeah, this likely means little to the actual output of Marvel, and actually probably just guarantees that they'll be in business forever. Anyone with any grasp of how the entertainment world works should know that. But not everybody does, obviously. But now you know! Hooray!

Fun fact: DC Comics has been owned by Time Warner for forty years. Hasn't really negatively impacted them.

To my knowledge Time Warner aren't quite as interventionist.

Originally Posted by Lord Zero

To my knowledge Time Warner aren't quite as interventionist.

Walt Disney Corp. are like nazis to their subsidiaries, from what I've heard.

I don't care much; I'm far more of a DC Comics guy.