Disney buys Marvel

[T-dog]

Disney to buy Marvel in $4bn deal


Disney is acquiring a batch of new characters

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.
Marvel shareholders will get $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share owned.
The boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the deal, which now needs the backing of Marvel shareholders and competition authorities.
Marvel shares were ahead $10.17, or 26%, to $48.82 shortly after the market opened. Disney shares fell 47 cents, or 1.8%, to $26.37.


'Great assets'
"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Disney president and chief executive Robert Iger said.
"We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."
Other Marvel's characters include Captain America, the Fantastic Four and Thor.
"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Marvel chief executive Ike Perlmutter.
"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," he added.





'Good deal'
Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne, Agee and Leach, said that the deal appeared to be a "win-win situation for both companies".
"They [Marvel shareholders] are getting a good deal in my opinion. The CEO of the company, Isaac Perlmutter, is also the largest shareholder of the company.
"From that standpoint, we think the chances of this deal going through are pretty high."
Last month, Walt Disney reported a fall in profits of more than a quarter as the downturn hit revenue at its film and theme park divisions.
Net profit between April and June came in at $954m (£579m), down 26% on the $1.28bn the entertainment giant made in the same period last year.
Revenues of $8.6bn were down 7% from the $9.2bn recorded a year before.



Hm, interesting. One good thing is that Marvel films can now benefit from bigger budgets for their movies due to Disney's deep pockets... Or Miley Cyrus appears in the next Spider man comic :D

[legendaryken]

.......or we can have High School Musical 4 - The New Brats where they get vaporised by Doctor Octopus before they're halfway through the first number. I'd pay to see that.

.......or The Jonas Brothers sat on by The Hulk for two hours. That would be entertaining.

[Gunnar Brian]

Or, you know it could work in the opposite way where we all cringe because they produce something where Marvel characters are saved by disney characters *shudders*

[Mike Adams]

follow my twitter feed to see my ideas for the new conglomorate all day

www.twitter.com/MadMike4883

[Mr. Long]

I highly await an Iron Man/Pirates of the Caribbean crossover where Tony and Capt. Jack get shitfaced and tag team Elizabeth Swan.

[Ncomo]

Well now we have warner bros with bugs and batman vs disney with mickie and spiderman. Isn't Disney's biggest rival park universal supposed to have marvel superheros playing a huge part of it?

[Dreamer1084]

I saw this on the news this morning and I don't think this is going to be a good thing. If Disney is smart they will keep Disney entertainment separate from Marvel because if Hannah Montana makes a cameo in Spiderman 4 comic book geeks are going to riot.

[Snowman]

Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana vs Marvel? Hmm, I'm more of a Selena Gomez guy myself. Not only is she incredibly fine, cute and hot but she's also got brilliant comedy timing. Miley Cyrus has... Well... Billy Ray Cyrus.

Speakin' of Billy Ray, who's playing Thor?

[Dreamer1084]

Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana vs Marvel? Hmm, I'm more of a Selena Gomez guy myself. Not only is she incredibly fine, cute and hot but she's also got brilliant comedy timing. Miley Cyrus has... Well... Billy Ray Cyrus.

Speakin' of Billy Ray, who's playing Thor?

As long as Disney stars don't end up in anything Marvel then I don't care.

[Wrestlingmann]

All i need is good promotion by Disney (and to leave Marvel to themselves) and a Marvel level in the new Kingdom Hearts. If all is met, this is a good deal IMO.

[Mike Adams]

miley cyrus will be dazzler in xmen: first team or whatever its gonna be called, bank on it

[T-dog]

Now she'll have the best of both companies.

[Cripplerlock]

HULK SMASH PUNY BIG EAR MOUSE!



Well there is not many things that make my jaw drop to the bottom of the floor but this is one them. I heard it on the news and I almost spit out my drink. They did a good job keeping it under the cover (although I don't think the deal has officially been signed yet-formality at this point)

I remember a time (more like a few years ago) when Disney was not in a position to buy out anyone. Not to say Marvel was doing any better.

seriously they need to keep the franchises seperate for the most part. They can't go G rated with the comics, that will not work. I could see them producing a kid friendly Disney/Marvel comic line specifically targeted towards kids, but in order not to piss off hardcore marvel comic fans (who might be getting ready to riot anyway), leave the regular comic line alone. The irony here is I have not kept up with any Marvel comics for a long time.

Meanwhile it appears that the Marvel Zombie story may resurface as the zombied heros discover a new world on the menu.

Folks rememeber to visit the game forums as we discuss the hidden Disney characters in the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 game.

[D2Kvirus]

Or, you know it could work in the opposite way where we all cringe because they produce something where Marvel characters are saved by disney characters *shudders*

Or they use the Marvel characters to reboot the Kingdom Hearts games...

[One Stratusfied Customer]

As long as they don't make Marvel disneyesque I don't mind really.

First thing I thought though was about Universal Studios (Disneys main Orlando competition) rides... Their two biggest (in my opinion best) are probably The Hulk and Spiderman rides... Wonder if they'll get renamed or what.

In regards to Miley... I always thought she'd have made a decent Rogue, well her accent at least anyway and it's not like Anna Paquin (or however you spell it) did anything amazing with the character.

[Advocate]

Disney owns ESPN, ABC, Miramax films, Touchtone Pictures, Dimension Films, and A&E, among others.

It has produced films such as Halloween, The Crow, Scream, Sin City, Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, and so forth

Do not be fooled to think this is just a children entertainment company

[One Stratusfied Customer]

I know that Disney aren't all Mickey Mouse. Something like Marvel Comics does have more of a chance of being made children friendly... Do I think it will happen? No... Would it be easier for Disney to make it kid friendly compared to the others you mentioned? Yes.

[D2Kvirus]

In regards to Miley... I always thought she'd have made a decent Rogue, well her accent at least anyway and it's not like Anna Paquin (or however you spell it) did anything amazing with the character.

Lies!

True, she was wasted in X3, but she certainly did her bit in the first two films (aka The Good Ones).

[One Stratusfied Customer]

Don't get me wrong, I love the Rogue character, I just think she could have been more in the movies... I suppose I don't particularly blame Paquin for that though.

[TheMainMan25]

Well, perhaps with this new buy out Disney can force The Rock (who's basically Disney's slave), to appear in a Marvel flick or two.

[Wrestlingmann]

Anyways. This fan-made Moc up gave me a hard on.

[One Stratusfied Customer]

Ooooh me likey very much!

[T-dog]

That looks pretty great actually. Is that from Kingdom Hearts 2 with Wolverine edited into the picture? or did he actually make that picture from the ground up. because those graphics are quite nice.

[Wilse]

6 things you should know about disney buying marvel

As you probably know by now, the big entertainment news of the day is the walt disney company buying marvel entertainment. Shortly after the $4 billion dollar deal was announced, a shareholder conference call was held to explain some of the details. If you didn’t have a chance to sit through the call yourself, don’t worry, as we’ve got you covered. Below you will find our quick guide to what is going on — based on the information we have in front of us.

1. Disney has an “if it ain’t broke…” viewpoint toward marvel studios. walt disney president bob iger said specifically that disney will have an “if it ain’t broke…” attitude when it comes to the future of marvel films. All of the creative control — including use of 3d, which characters will get movies, etc — will remain in the hands of the people who know the marvel universe best: The people at marvel. Sure, this might change down the road, but the initial sentiment is that disney does not intend to come in and take control of marvel’s creative world.

2. All previous deals are still in place. paramount is still going to distribute up to five more marvel studios films, including thor, the first avenger: Captain america, iron man 2 and the avengers. The also could still distribute an ant-man movie. As well, there are still existing deals in which other studios hold the cinematic rights to certain characters. Those are not changing. So spider-man is staying at sony, x-men is staying with fox, and so on. Disney intends to bring those characters back in-house at some point, but there’s no indication that it will be happening anytime soon.

3. John lasseter has met with marvel about a pixar team-up. executives stated that not only has john lasseter, the man behind pixar and now disney animation, already met with the folks at marvel, but that they were also so excited that they had to be told to calm down. The meaning here is simple: Something is brewing between marvel and pixar, and there’s no way that can be a bad thing.

4. Disney is a brand machine. from a film marketing standpoint — and for that matter, a brand marketing standpoint — disney is a powerhouse. pirate of the caribbean, the films of pixar and all the way down to television with shows such as lost via their ownership of abc, disney knows how to sell a brand. And selling the marvel brand means more marvel fans, more recognition in the mainstream and for those of us keeping score, more money down the road to make marvel movies.

5. Disney backing means marvel budgets. disney is a smart company. During the conference call they said, in effect, that their goal is to shine a brighter light on marvel. Which likely means marketing dollars, added funding for development and (hopefully) increased marketshare. With big daddy disney backing them up financially, marvel will be able to operate at a higher level. Assuming creative control stays the same (which appears to be the case), marvel fans can only count on more of what they love from their favorite brand.

6. A lot of details are yet to be hashed out. one very important thing to keep in mind is that there will be a great gestation period here. Marvel entertainment has a lot of existing deals — theme parks, movie distribution, etc. — and all of those contract will be honored by disney. It will take them a long time to reign in the marvel universe and obtain full creative control.
As you can see, there are good intentions all around — disney doesn’t want to screw up their $4 billion dollar purchase, so its likely that they will let the highly profitable marvel studios do their thing. The questions don’t arise until far down the line, when disney begins to take back the rights to marvel characters. How will they handle these franchises? How many movies will they release per year? All of these questions are yet to be answered, and may not be answered for a long time. At this point, all we can say is that this deal appears to be a good one for marvel.


update: paramount pictures had the following to say via press release today:
“paramount pictures has enjoyed a productive and fruitful relationship with marvel studios from the start of our distribution agreement in 2005,” the statement began. “so much so, we announced a five-picture slate distribution deal last year which includes worldwide distribution rights for upcoming films: iron man 2, thor, captain america, avengers, and iron man 3. This distribution deal will be unaffected by today’s transaction. We look forward to continuing to work with marvel and, with today’s announcement, to working with disney to replicate the incredible success of iron man on all our future collaborative projects.”
looks like all is well in the love triangle of marvel/paramount/disney. All three have nothing to lose and everything to gain by seeing marvel’s movies churn out a profit, so i would suspect that they will all play nice until the contract is up.

Thought I should share this.

I was wondering what would happen with all of the movie deals etc. with Paramount. Sounds like a pretty good comic book love triangle!

[Prometheus]

I did feel like pointiong out most of this stuff. Disney doesn't combine crap up and spread it out, almost no smart business does. Marvel stays Marvel, Pixar (A company created by George Lucas I believe) hasn't been swallowed up. They also own ESPN. And ABC, Miramax and Even The History Channel.

[D2Kvirus]

Don't get me wrong, I love the Rogue character, I just think she could have been more in the movies... I suppose I don't particularly blame Paquin for that though.

Can we get onto ripping into Halle Berry's "performances" as Storm now, please?