Disney to Buy Marvel in $4 Billion Deal

[BringTheNoise]

Entertainment giant Walt Disney is to buy Marvel Entertainment in a shares and cash deal valued at $4bn (£2.5bn).

The deal means Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men.

Still requires approval from Marvel's shareholders and competition authorities, but it looks pretty secure to go through. This is a big shake-up in the comics market, but I don't know exactly how this will affect Marvel (or Boom! Studios who have the licence for Disney/Pixar comics currently) as of yet.

ETA: And here's the article

[Tarquin Farquart]

I'm not really sure of the going rates for such things, but this seems rather cheap.

[BringTheNoise]

It works out at $30 a share in cash, plus just under 3/4 of a Disney share. Seems pretty good to me.

[Shnoops]

Things could get interesting. There could be video games such as X-Men VS. Disney, and Marvel Superheroes joins Kingdom Hearts. There could also be fun comics like having The Fantastic Four enter a different dimension and come across The Incredibles.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by BringTheNoise

It works out at $30 a share in cash, plus just under 3/4 of a Disney share. Seems pretty good to me.

I'd have expected Marvel with all those characters to cost more. But as I said, I don't really know what the going rates are.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Shnoops

Things could get interesting. There could be video games such as X-Men VS. Disney, and Marvel Superheroes joins Kingdom Hearts. There could also be fun comics like having The Fantastic Four enter a different dimension and come across The Incredibles.

Spiderman: the High School Musical?

[BringTheNoise]

Eh, most of those characters are of very little worth, to be honest. Spidey and Wolverine will bring in the big bucks, but I don't see a Pete Wisdom or Amadeus Cho movie in the offing.

[JoeBentley]

Ehhh as long as this doesn't lead to the wussification of the Marvel Universe and doesn't effect the adult lines like Vertigo and Marvel Max, I'm okay with this.

If the Punisher starts sending bad guys to bed without their supper I'm gonna be pissed though.

[BringTheNoise]

Well it's certainly not going to affect Vertigo, as that's a DC imprint. Hopefully they will let Marvel run at arms length a la Miramax or Pixar.

[JoeBentley]

Originally Posted by BringTheNoise

Well it's certainly not going to affect Vertigo, as that's a DC imprint.

Yeah I had a total brainfart on that one. Does Marvel even have an adult imprint other then the Max line anymore?

[Lainie]

Sounds like a pretty good deal for Marvel shareholders.

[BringTheNoise]

There's Icon which publishes creator-owned work (such as Brubaker's Criminal and Bendis' Powers). It tends to skew towards mature titles.

[Il-Mari]

Originally Posted by BringTheNoise

It works out at $30 a share in cash, plus just under 3/4 of a Disney share. Seems pretty good to me.

Seems a bit low to me as well. Consider that, combined, just the three Spider-Man and X-Men movies grossed about $3.7 billion. Yes, there's a big difference between what the films gross and what the studios get at the end of the day, but it's a good indication of just how valuable those two brands alone can be (as films shown in theaters, they probably made as much or more than that figure on DVD and through merchandising).

- Il-Mari

[Insensible Crier]

Originally Posted by Shnoops

Things could get interesting. There could be video games such as X-Men VS. Disney, and Marvel Superheroes joins Kingdom Hearts. There could also be fun comics like having The Fantastic Four enter a different dimension and come across The Incredibles.

I would shell out hard currency to see the The Hulk rip Jafar in half like a phone book.

[Tarquin Farquart]

I'm hoping they're going to reveal that Mary Poppins is actually a mutant.

[JoeBentley]

Originally Posted by Insensible Crier

I would shell out hard currency to see the The Hulk rip Jafar in half like a phone book.

Frank Castle, a fully loaded M60, and the It's a Small World ride would make for an interesting one-shot.

[Dondi]

Why am I envisioning seeing Iron Man signing autographs along Main Street on my next trip to Disneyland?

[E. Q. Taft]

I was thinking of the potential of integrating Marvel-themed attractions into the parks (or perhaps a spin-off park, concentrating on thrill rides) when I remembered that Universal's "Islands of Adventure" park already has an area called "Mavel Super-Hero Island" with rides based on the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Doctor Doom. I presume that their licensing agreements will not be affected (at least, not immediately) by this deal, but the idea of Disney World creating it's own Spider-Man ride right next door would seem a bit strange.

[Errata]

Originally Posted by Il-Mari

Seems a bit low to me as well. Consider that, combined, just the three Spider-Man and X-Men movies grossed about $3.7 billion. Yes, there's a big difference between what the films gross and what the studios get at the end of the day, but it's a good indication of just how valuable those two brands alone can be (as films shown in theaters, they probably made as much or more than that figure on DVD and through merchandising).

Unlike Disney, Marvel isn't a film studio, so they didn't make those films themselves. They already sold the rights to those movies, so they're not going to see much of that profit, just whatever royalties Marvel negotiated. There was a big risk that those films could have been much less profitable than they were, so the film rights weren't billion dollar commodities back when they were sold. We're probably not going to be seeing Spiderman or X-Men movies produced by Disney any time soon.

[BringTheNoise]

Well, actually Marvel do actually have a movie studio now, although X-Men and Spidey were not made by Marvel Studios. Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk from 2008 were in-house productions, with Iron Man 2 due next year, and Captain America due in 2011.