Walt Disney Buys Marvel Entertainment Inc.
Comics Empire Created X-Men, Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk
Aug 31, 2009
The rumours are true: The Walt Disney Company has bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion worth of cash and stock options.
In return, The House that Mickey Built will gain control of all Marvel's stable of over 5,000 comic book characters, including Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk.
"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, said in the official press release. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."
"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," responded Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's Chief Executive Officer. "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."
Walt Disney Company Buys Marvel Entertainment, John Lasseter Meets With Creative Team
According to the Mouse House's press release, "Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. 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."
In an investor conference call, Disney said that it won't interfere with any previous deals Marvel made with other companies, for the time being. Marvel hooked up with Universal Studios to develop the "Islands of Adventure" rides based on Spider-Man and The Hulk, and Fox has the ongoing live-action feature-film adaptations of properties such as the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
However, Disney will gradually merge all Marvel film and merch deals under its banner, since the Mouse House feels that it's "in our best interest if, over time, we ended up as the sole distributor of these theatrical release films."
Under the deal – which still needs to be ratified under anti-trust rules and approved by both Disney and Marvel's boards – Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. However, canny shareholders will likely have noticed Wall Street's response to the news: Marvel's stock immediately jumped 25% to $48.40 per share.
Also, Disney revealed that Pixar co-founder and Disney Animation creative chief John Lasseter met with Marvel's creative team last week and everyone got "pretty excited very fast." Given Lasseter's 2nd job with Disney, this doesn't mean that a Marvel/Pixar collaboration is in the cards, but it shouldn't be ruled out, either.
It's more likely that Marvel's artists and writers will adopt Pixar's successful "Brain Trust" strategy in developing projects.
 |
