Disney To Buy Marvel For $4B

LOS ANGELES ????????? The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it 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, 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 theaters to see Marvel's superhero fare 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 percent, to $48.82 shortly after the market opened. Disney shares fell 47 cents, or 1.8 percent, 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 last made a big purchase in 2006 when it acquired Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the creator of the "Toy Story" franchise, for $7.4 billion in stock.

Disney CEO Robert Iger said the latest 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.

Marvel earned a net profit of $206 million last fiscal year, up 47 percent from a year earlier, on revenue of $676 million, as it took movie production in house instead of just cutting licensing deals.

source: Yahoo!

U:IoA looks to be getting a retheme then :/ Unless Disney dont mind?

Glad to see the entertainment firms don't have a problem with this recession.
Maybe the banks should take some advice from Disney.

My pants have now been removed.

Yeah, I'm worried about IoA now that Disney owns the rights to Marvel, which makes a major part of the park.

Disney would not want Marvel to be in a competitor's park at all. I think this is going to be used against Universal. When a little boy is growing up, Disney will start to appear dull and dumb. That little kid would want to go to IoA because of superheroes and thrills. Now picture Disney having Marvel under its belt... You see where I am going with this?

Anyway, I expect a MAJOR change at IoA now (besides Harry Potter World of course).

[Oscar]

Are any of you thinking that Marvel came out hugely undervalued and that Disney is going to make bucketloads of money from this? Seriously, $4billion for Marvel is actually kind of dumb. They could have made that from 4 movies in itself!

I just also realized something! I think Disney Hollywood Studios will be making a huge announcement in the near future if you catch my drift...

So now mickey mouse is going to be in the next Spider man movie?

[Oscar]

Mickey is tag teaming with spiderman

Just watch that happen dude.... just wait and see...

Will Six Flags still be able to use Superman, Batman, ect?

See there are tons of people that are saying all the super hero movies are going to suffer now. That's not how I see it all all. Look at Pirates. Was that movie censored to a little kid movie? No, not at all. They aren't brainwashing the producers or anything to make the movies child rated. No, this just means you'll see previews for other Disney movies and Marvel will have the name Disney next to it. I think people are overreacting a bit.

Although things like seeing Mickey Mouse walking around Disney in a Spiderman, or any other super hero costume will probably be seen. Does that make it a bad thing, no. If anything it's cool for little kids to see Mickey dressed up as a bad ass super hero!

Originally posted by kooliokid

Will Six Flags still be able to use Superman, Batman, ect?

Yes. Superman and Batman are DC characters, not Marvel.

[rcmaniac25]

I would think that Disney would let the licenses to the Marvel characters expire and then will decide if they can/should be renewed. I don't think you need to worry about Disney putting Mickey in the next Spider Man movie because A: people would probably be pissed, B: That license is currently held by Sony, so it's their decision.

What? Disney buying Marvel? 4B?

Hitler isn't too happy about this.

Here's a couple a pics of Marvel and Disney





LOL!

Originally posted by rcmaniac25

I would think that Disney would let the licenses to the Marvel characters expire and then will decide if they can/should be renewed. I don't think you need to worry about Disney putting Mickey in the next Spider Man movie because A: people would probably be pissed, B: That license is currently held by Sony, so it's their decision.

Thank god for Sony. If the license to the movies were held by Disney, they would probably have spider-man fighting Carnage in the middle of Disney World, and it wouldn't go into theaters, it would just premier on Disney Channel.

I doubt very much Disney is going to start dropping Marvel characters into its theme parks, and hope they don't give into temptation to do it. I suppose it's possible ... There was a time when I thought Indiana Jones showing-up at Disney would be completely absurd.

Disney nuts would probably object, though. There's a whole culture thing going on, and I expect Disney fans would have been far more pleased to see Disney acquire Harry Potter than Spidey and the Hulk. Indiana Jones would not have made it into Disneyland if there wasn't a place for him (Adventureland). Same goes for Star Wars (Tomorrowland). I could see Marvel characters in a movie studio stunt show, but that's about all. Hulk wouldn't be (or feel) at home on Main Street. They need to be careful about how they bring in Marvel characters, or they'll lose part of what makes the Disney parks something special.