Disney pays 4 billion for Marvel entertainment

Asmodean

Market Watch reports that The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction worth $4 billion.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters including "Iron Man," "Spider-Man," "X-Men," "Captain America," "Fantastic Four," "Thor," "Hulk," "Sub-Mariner" and of course "The Avengers"

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.

How this move will impact the company's respective film franchises is presently not clear. An investor conference call is taking place in an hour with a lot more details expected then. Stay tuned.

This can only lead to bad things IMO. What ye think?

Morag

Fúck

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8230504.stm

Seems disney has no more stories to rip off and screw over and sell to kiddes and so have just sorted out Stan Lee's retirement package.

Asmodean

Well Mr Lee is hardly honorable when it comes to money alright. I think they've really shot themselves in the foot, especially just when Marvel were finally getting proper movies out.

star-pants

Boooourns.
I love Disney, I love Marvel... but not together...

Xabs

I don't think it'll change much to be honest.

Unless they try to assimilate Disney characters into the Marvel universe....
Although I'd love to see a Deadpool Vs Donald Duck

ztoical

Not a bad move really IMO. Time Warner already owns DC and with this it means Marvel has access to a massive distribution channel it didn't have before. Disney already owns several subsidiaries like Touchstone and Miramax to put out work that doesn't fall under what they term the 'Disney Brand' and they've already stated they aren't going to rebrand Marvel as a disney brand so don't go freaking out that suddenly all the Marvel stories are going to turn into Disney below PG13 ratings. The really good side of this is the shake up it could have in the direct market esp with Diamond, Disney don't crap from anyone.

And it's not like Marvel was an independent publisher like say dark horse, it's a big business with several subsidiaries of its own that use to belong to New World Entertainment another movie and television production company before being bought and merged with Toy Biz by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings.

iMax

Wonder when the first in-park merchandising/characters will appear.

ztoical

iMax wrote: »

Wonder when the first in-park merchandising/characters will appear.

Marvel already has deals with several parks like 6 flags and universal studios park so it will actual take awhile if ever that they appear at any of the Disney owned parks. As already mentioned Disney has said they aren't putting Marvel under the Disney Brand for now and any contracts Marvel has like those with 6 flags will have to be honored until their renewal date.

shenanigans1982

ztoical wrote: »

Marvel already has deals with several parks like 6 flags and universal studios park so it will actual take awhile if ever that they appear at any of the Disney owned parks. As already mentioned Disney has said they aren't putting Marvel under the Disney Brand for now and any contracts Marvel has like those with 6 flags will have to be honored until their renewal date.

People were going crazy about this on IOA message boards a few weeks ago fearing that Marvel superhero Island would be airlifted over night from IOA and dropped into a Disney park. I dunno how long the initial deal between both companies is for( some people say 25 years) but I would hate to see that move happen.

Fysh

Nobody else seems to have mentioned this directly, but ztoical's comment about distribution channels reminded me of this story from a while ago.

We'll see how this goes, looks like it's not going to have any effect before next year. But if it leads to comics being sold in more places than Direct Market shops? Everyone wins.

ztoical

Most of the news pieces are stressing that Disney will keep the current Marvel high ups and not really take over any of the day to day work of the company....it will be interesting to see if the Marvel artists contracts change to reflect the disney ones. Disney has a pretty big rep for giving animators tough contracts when it comes to the rights/ownership of their work - I know several animators who've turned down jobs with them due to these clauses in their contracts [some of them say anything you draw while under contract to Disney belongs to Disney even stuff you draw on a napkin while out eating with friends]. they might have changed in recent times with the Pixar studio merge but it will be interesting to see if Marvel pushes any more creator owned titles after this.

I'd also expect to see a big crack down on people using Marvel characters without permission, Disney does love to sue people for miss use of their property.

Fysh

ztoical wrote: »

I'd also expect to see a big crack down on people using Marvel characters without permission, Disney does love to sue people for miss use of their property.

The worlds of the DCP/MinuteMen are going to suddenly get a lot more interesting, I imagine (Though if that goes hand-in-hand with a proper digital distribution strategy, then it'll be worth it)

livingtargets

ztoical wrote: »

I'd also expect to see a big crack down on people using Marvel characters without permission, Disney does love to sue people for miss use of their property.

Too right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pirates

Then again they`ll have their work cut out for them if they decide to do that(they more than likely will).Marvel`s long-pants brigade are a verrrry popular subject of underground parodies.

But I don`t think Marvel`s comic output will change very much,if at all,because of this.

Well apart from the inevitable "Mickey Mouse and The Power Pack" oneshot

Fysh

Saw these on the Bleeding Cool discussion on this topic:





It occurs to me that, aside from Criminal via Icon, I don't think I buy anything much from Marvel any more (well, aside from the 3 issues of the Max Strange Tales thing that's coming out soon). I wonder whether Disney taking over ownership of the company will result in anything that changes that?

ztoical

livingtargets wrote: »

Too right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pirates

Then again they`ll have their work cut out for them if they decide to do that(they more than likely will).Marvel`s long-pants brigade are a verrrry popular subject of underground parodies.

But I don`t think Marvel`s comic output will change very much,if at all,because of this.

Well apart from the inevitable "Mickey Mouse and The Power Pack" oneshot

While the Air Pirates case is the most famous of the Disney law suits, they have sued over even more vague infringements under the attitude that most won't even bother showing up to court so scared of the might Disney machine. When you think about it Marvel and Disney are well suited in their attitudes towards licensing and franchise ownership and I don't think you'll see much if any change within Marvel for a number of years as a result of this, mainly because it will take time for the deal to go through and Marvel has a number of deals with other studios [Spiderman 4, Iron Man 2, etc] that have to go through so it will be 2012/2013 before you start to see any real push and Disney aren't stupid you won't see them trying to package Disney characters up with Marvel characters, the whole reason they've gone after Marvel is to get that Male late teen/20's age group they currently have nothing for, mixing Disney brand stuff in there would go against that so if anything look for Marvel to go even more uber fan boy and stop trying to branch out of it's core market.

iMax

While Disney lays down a $4 billion bet on the future of Marvel's superheroes, 20th Century Fox has already begun overhauling one of its big Marvel franchises, "Fantastic Four," to take the property beyond the two films already made.
Akiva Goldsman has been hired to oversee the reboot as producer. Michael Green, the co-exec producer of TV's "Heroes" who co-wrote "Green Lantern," will write the script for the new "Fantastic Four."

Fox wouldn't comment on its plans, but the moves are evidence that Marvel franchises do have enduring lifespans.

As "Spider-Man 4" moves toward an early 2010 production start, Columbia Pictures recently hired James Vanderbilt to write a fifth and sixth installment with the understanding that one or both of those films would give the franchise a makeover with a new director and cast (Daily Variety, Aug. 16).
More than one option(Co) Daily Variety
Filmography, Year, Role
(Co) Daily Variety

The 2005 "Fantastic Four" and 2007 sequel "Rise of the Silver Surfer" were directed by Tim Story and starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. Since the deals for the reboot are just getting made, it is unclear if any of them will return.

Though Marvel Entertainment owns and finances properties like "Iron Man" and "Thor," Fox controls "Fantastic Four" in perpetuity -- as long as it continues making the films. Fox has the same arrangement on Marvel Comics properties "X-Men," "Daredevil" and "Silver Surfer." Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement.

Though the related Silver Surfer character soared in the "Fantastic Four" sequel, that iconic personality has remained a priority project for his own film at the studio.

Fox has so far done one "X-Men" spinoff in "Wolverine." The studio is working on a sequel to that film and has scripts for "X-Men Origins: First Class," and "X-Men Origins: Magneto." Potential spinoffs for the Gambit and Deadpool characters have also been discussed.

As producer, Goldsman is involved with several DC Comics transfers, including "Jonah Hex," "The Losers" and "Teen Titans." He was also producer of the Will Smith-Charlize Theron superhero film "Hancock," for which a sequel is being developed.

Source: Variety

niall mc cann

Wow, i'm surprised to hear people are so down on this...

My first thought was "Great! there'll be comics in tons of places where there were no comics before!".

Disney has hugely deep pockets... can only be a good thing for Marvel to have those kinds of resources to draw on.

Disney also seem to me much more open to embracing new media than marvel do too... this may just be the kick in the arse Marvel needs to start selling their comics for electronic platforms like the iphone and it's ilk, which could only be a good thing, to me. get comics out there to as many people as possible, in whatever format they choose to purchase it. It's just good sense. And Disney has always had good business sense, historically.

JABcomix

http://fav.me/d28plsm

I created this image when I heard the news.


One can only dream, right?


~JAB