Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion

Mr E

Cue PG marvel movies 'til the end of time....
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=58547

Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion!
Source:The Walt Disney Company
August 31, 2009

A huge announcement this morning - Disney is going to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion!

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

“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,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “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.”

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.

“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said 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.”

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.

The Boards of Directors of Disney and Marvel have each approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, effectiveness of a registration statement with respect to Disney shares issued in the transaction and other customary closing conditions. The agreement will require the approval of Marvel shareholders. Marvel was advised on the transaction by BofA Merrill Lynch.

UPDATE #1: In a conference call, the companies said that the deals for movies for characters at other studios (Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.) will stay in place under the terms set by Marvel and the other studios.

UPDATE #2: John Lasseter met with Marvel last week about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got "pretty excited, pretty fast." They say there's definitely an opportunity there.

UPDATE #3: The deal with Paramount Pictures to distribute "Iron Man 2," "Thor," "Captain America" and "The Avengers" stays in place as well, but Disney would like to self-distribute down the line. "When the time comes we'll take a closer look at it." It was actually stated that the deal still included five films, so that is one more film after "The Avengers."

chin_grin

Worst.news.ever. I'm off to cry......

FreeOSCAR

What will happen to The Islands of Adventure?

rizzla

I just hope that we see some Mavel comic characters in the next Kingdom Heart's game.

Necronomicon

UPDATE #2: John Lasseter met with Marvel last week about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got "pretty excited, pretty fast." They say there's definitely an opportunity there.

Ah, Pixar's "The Punisher", I can see it now....

humanji

I think this could be a good thing. There'll be more money and more experience on hand which might stop travesties like Wolverine from happening ever again.

Overheal

You know - After Spiderman 3, can they really do much worse?

Black Lead

I guess we can see Marvel films drying up in the next few years if the Warner Bros/DC relationship is anything to go by and given Disney "family" image I'll doubt we will see any great films the best we can hope for is some good animated films.

PirateShampoo

NNNNNnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooo

shenanigans1982

FreeOSCAR wrote: »

What will happen to The Islands of Adventure?

They will remain in place until the deal is up for renewal...some people are saying that was for 25 years which would give them another 12-13 years?....at which stage I reckon Disney would seriously look at bringing them in. Spider-mans face is too big an opportunity for Disney too pass up, aside from the ticket sales it would generate it takes a major draw away from Universal.

Mossy Monk

4,000,000,000. Wow.

Magic Eight Ball

I think this might be a great move, look at the bigger picture guys!

Namely, Pixar developing future Marvel projects!!

John Lasseter has already spoken to the Marvel about this and apparently both parties are really excited about it.

Bring it on I say!

kaimera

from reddit.com

Galvasean

NO more Punisher so

krudler

It looks like any contractual movies will still be made by their studios, so Paramount has 5 more Marvel projects, Fox has a few as well although the Marvel franchises being taken away from Fox is ****ing fantastic news, no more Wolverine/Elektra/Fantastic 4 movies from them, horray!

BlitzKrieg

lucky for marvel.

They would have destroyed themselves if they kept trying to go at it alone.

Not complaining myself, as someone else said, disney cant do much worse then pretty much everything marvel has done so far anyway.

grimm2005

I don't get why people think this will mean the end of any sort of "mature" marvel films? Miramax is a division of disney and they released bad santa and kill bill to name a couple. Unless i'm missing something there?

ztoical

grimm2005 wrote: »

I don't get why people think this will mean the end of any sort of "mature" marvel films? Miramax is a division of disney and they released bad santa and kill bill to name a couple. Unless i'm missing something there?

+ 1 Disney has stated the whole reason they wanted Marvel was to reach that late teen early 20's male group that they currently have nothing for. There is no way they are going to try and push the Disney brand onto Marvel as that would go against the whole reason they forked out for the Marvel Brand. Disney has plenty of companies like Miramax and Thouchstone that produce more mature productions outside of the Disney Brand. All the deals Marvel had in place like Iron Man 2, Spiderman 4 etc will move forward as planned so it's going to be 2012/2013 before Disney really take control and they've been very clear that aren't branding Marvel as a Disney Brand and they are keeping all the high ups at Marvel. It will most likely run the same as DC runs within the Time Warner company.

This could be a good thing though. Look what merging with Disney did for Pixar. The films Pixar have produced with their money have been nothing short of amazing, plus they have little or no involvement with it.

Perhaps it might be a good thing with Marvel ...

Handsome Bob

For the first time I am actually relieved that Sony own the film rights to Spider-Man because had Disney got their hands on that franchise, there would have been no going back.

Where does this leave Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers? A Captain America film needs a modern day Cap who has doubts about his country and where it is headed. Will Disney allow that or will they have a cringworthy flag waving Captain America? I don't like this at all.

ztoical

LZ5by5 wrote: »

For the first time I am actually relieved that Sony own the film rights to Spider-Man because had Disney got their hands on that franchise, there would have been no going back.

Where does this leave Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers? A Captain America film needs a modern day Cap who has doubts about his country and where it is headed. Will Disney allow that or will they have a cringworthy flag waving Captain America? I don't like this at all.

any film deals in place like those for Iron Man 2 will go ahead with the original studios - disney have made it clear those deals will be honored. I wouldn't worry about disney imposing anything on future Marvel films as most likely they will be produce by Marvel Studios not directly by Disney, at most Marvel would just have to get budget clearance from Disney just like with films produce by Miramax.

BlitzKrieg

For the first time I am actually relieved that Sony own the film rights to Spider-Man because had Disney got their hands on that franchise, there would have been no going back

I am trying to work out how disney can be worse then sony?

Handsome Bob

ztoical wrote: »

any film deals in place like those for Iron Man 2 will go ahead with the original studios - disney have made it clear those deals will be honored. I wouldn't worry about disney imposing anything on future Marvel films as most likely they will be produce by Marvel Studios not directly by Disney, at most Marvel would just have to get budget clearance from Disney just like with films produce by Miramax.

Do you think that if Disney are financing films that they won't want to have a certain amount of influence? Just look at how Venom was pushed on Raimi for S-M3 by Sony and Arad.

Handsome Bob

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

I am trying to work out how disney can be worse then sony?

If you think the franchise is already kids orientated as it is, if Disney got their hands on it then the **** would really hit the fan. Shia LeBeouf would be your Peter Parker.

ztoical

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Do you think that if Disney are financing films that they won't want to have a certain amount of influence? Just look at how Venom was pushed on Raimi for S-M3 by Sony and Arad.

Not as much as people seem to think. Disney have purchased Marvel for a reason and that is to reach a certain market, if they could reach that market with their own products they wouldn't have purchased Marvel...simple as. Why would you spend money on something then try and change it?

DC haven't suffered from being owned by Time Warner have they?

BlitzKrieg

LZ5by5 wrote: »

If you think the franchise is already kids orientated as it is, if Disney got their hands on it then the **** would really hit the fan. Shia LeBeouf would be your Peter Parker.

yeah I mean disney really made pulp fiction kid friendly

replacing all that heroine and cocaine with sugar.

On the counter, consider the amount of sh*t sony put james bond through

Handsome Bob

ztoical wrote: »

Not as much as people seem to think. Disney have purchased Marvel for a reason and that is to reach a certain market, if they could reach that market with their own products they wouldn't have purchased Marvel...simple as. Why would you spend money on something then try and change it?

DC haven't suffered from being owned by Time Warner have they?

You are right, Disney have purchased Marvel to reach a certain market. Why did they do that? Because the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers can make a tonne of money if marketed correctly. Who mostly buys merchandise? Kids. They'll make films for kids like Sony's Spider-Man is (mostly) for kids.

ztoical

LZ5by5 wrote: »

You are right, Disney have purchased Marvel to reach a certain market. Why did they do that? Because the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers can make a tonne of money if marketed correctly. Who mostly buys merchandise? Kids. They'll make films for kids like Sony's Spider-Man is (mostly) for kids.

So they bought Marvel to reach that 20's male market which means they'll make everything for kids? Do people not understand that while Marvel is owned by Disney it's coming under the Disney brand but will be set up as a subsidary? Time Warner didn't aim their Batman films at kids did they? So why does everyone assume Disney will start aiming all Marvel work at a younger age group? Cus it's Disney? Disney put out plenty of adult content just not under their own Disney Brand, that's why they buy or set up companies like Miramax, thouchstone AND Marvel!

Handsome Bob

ztoical wrote: »

So they bought Marvel to reach that 20's male market which means they'll make everything for kids? Do people not understand that while Marvel is owned by Disney it's coming under the Disney brand but will be set up as a subsidary? Time Warner didn't aim their Batman films at kids did they? So why does everyone assume Disney will start aiming all Marvel work at a younger age group? Cus it's Disney? Disney put out plenty of adult content just not under their own Disney Brand, that's why they buy or set up companies like Miramax, thouchstone AND Marvel!

That's because after Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, they had unintentionally destroyed a franchise by diminishing it to nothing more than a two hour toy advertisement. Batman had become a laughing stock in Hollywood and they had no choice but to go in a different and braver direction.

Look at the adult content Disney put out under Miramax and Touchstone, was their any potential to make a steal at the box office as well as in merchandise? No. With Marvel however there is. I mean Pulp Fiction is Pulp Fiction, there was absolutely no scope to market the film for kids. There is on the other hand plenty of scope to turn Marvel's superheroes into characters full of fluff.

BlitzKrieg

There is on the other hand plenty of scope to turn Marvel's superheroes into characters full of fluff.

And this brings me back to my original thinking...


How can disney do any worse then marvel at doing all this already?

Marvel are the biggest merchandise whores in the comic industry, the only change that could possible happen is maybe disney might make better quality merchandise?

ztoical

LZ5by5 wrote: »

That's because after Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, they had unintentionally destroyed a franchise by diminishing it to nothing more than a two hour toy advertisement. Batman had become a laughing stock in Hollywood and they had no choice but to go in a different and braver direction.

Look at the adult content Disney put out under Miramax and Touchstone, was their any potential to make a steal at the box office as well as in merchandise? No. With Marvel however there is.

Disney will get their merchandising out of cartoon shows based on Marvel characters for it's cable channels which is actually one of it's main focuses with Marvel right now not feature films, they already cover alot of female programing with Hanna Montana and the rest of that rubbish and want to focus on boys programing to start competing with Time Warners Cartoon Network. In fact Disney can't touch most of Marvels main characters for several years. Marvel studios is developing Iron Man 2, Thor, Avengers and Captain America with Paramount and any future X films including Deadpool will be done via FOX. They can't use Marvel characters in their parks on the west coast until at least 2013 and theres a big if they'll ever be able to use them on east coast thanks to Universals deal with Marvel.

The bigger fear isn't Disney making kiddie films based on Marvel characters but rather them not making anything at all, Disney has a rep for buying up the rights to characters simply to stop the competition using them rather then a huge need to use them themselves.

Penn

ztoical wrote: »

The bigger fear isn't Disney making kiddie films based on Marvel characters but rather them not making anything at all, Disney has a rep for buying up the rights to characters simply to stop the competition using them rather then a huge need to use them themselves.

Surely not with such a money-maker as Marvel though. Could print money faster than comics

Handsome Bob

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

And this brings me back to my original thinking...


How can disney do any worse then marvel at doing all this already?

Marvel are the biggest merchandise whores in the comic industry, the only change that could possible happen is maybe disney might make better quality merchandise?

Say what you want about what they are doing in the comics, but on film I think they have been solid. They have made an obscure character such as Iron Man a household name, while at the same time making a film that both kids and adults can enjoy.

The current word on the Captain America film is that rather than being his flag waving old self, that he will be more like the modern day Cap who questions his own beliefs about his country.

They have hired Kenneth Branagh to make Thor, I guy known for doing Shakespeare, so I think a certain level of maturity will be guaranteed.

So I certainly don't think they have or had planned on making films just for kids.

ztoical wrote: »

Disney will get their merchandising out of cartoon shows based on Marvel characters for it's cable channels which is actually one of it's main focuses with Marvel right now not feature films, they already cover alot of female programing with Hanna Montana and the rest of that rubbish and want to focus on boys programing to start competing with Time Warners Cartoon Network. In fact Disney can't touch most of Marvels main characters for several years. Marvel studios is developing Iron Man 2, Thor, Avengers and Captain America with Paramount and any future X films including Deadpool will be done via FOX. They can't use Marvel characters in their parks on the west coast until at least 2013 and theres a big if they'll ever be able to use them on east coast thanks to Universals deal with Marvel.

The bigger fear isn't Disney making kiddie films based on Marvel characters but rather them not making anything at all, Disney has a rep for buying up the rights to characters simply to stop the competition using them rather then a huge need to use them themselves.

Well then if that's the case I'll be a happy man up until The Avengers comes out in 2012, and will only then begin to worry about the future of each respective franchise.

I think it would be outrageous and incredibly stupid if Disney let these characters sit on the shelf so I'm confident that they haven't just signed up in order to stop the competition from doing so.

ztoical

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Say what you want about what they are doing in the comics, but on film I think they have been solid. They have made an obscure character such as Iron Man a household name, while at the same time making a film that both kids and adults can enjoy.

The current word on the Captain America film is that rather than being his flag waving old self, that he will be more like the modern day Cap who questions his own beliefs about his country.

They have hired Kenneth Branagh to make Thor, I guy known for doing Shakespeare, so I think a certain level of maturity will be guaranteed.

So I certainly don't think they have or had planned on making films just for kids.

They also made Elektra, Daredevil, Punisher [twice] and Ghost Rider and their television division has failed to make any real dent so I wouldn't go giving them that much credit and Blitz's comment wasn't about Marvel making films aimed at kids but on Marvel being just a big a marketing and merchandising whore as Disney if not more so, so why are people freaking out? If this was a totally indie comic book studio like Dark Horse I'd freak out but Marvel have already bankrupted themselves twice and have been bought out a couple of times over the years, it's not like they are some sainted company that's never done wrong.

chungy16

well it might sound bad but im impressed how disney made the pirates of the carribean, which was a great action comedy movie so im giving them a chance to prove themselves. how bad can it be. they got the money to produce and afford the best directors

Handsome Bob

ztoical wrote: »

They also made Elektra, Daredevil, Punisher [twice] and Ghost Rider and their television division has failed to make any real dent so I wouldn't go giving them that much credit and Blitz's comment wasn't about Marvel making films aimed at kids but on Marvel being just a big a marketing and merchandising whore as Disney if not more so, so why are people freaking out? If this was a totally indie comic book studio like Dark Horse I'd freak out but Marvel have already bankrupted themselves twice and have been bought out a couple of times over the years, it's not like they are some sainted company that's never done wrong.

No, but I honestly feel that since Iron Man and since their plans had been outlined for 2008-2012, that they had finally gotten themselves into a good stride (in regards to film).

ztoical

LZ5by5 wrote: »

No, but I honestly feel that since Iron Man and since their plans had been outlined for 2008-2012, that they had finally gotten themselves into a good stride (in regards to film).

And there's no reason to think Disney will effect that in any way. If they bought Marvel in order to compete with Time Warner in kids cable television then doesn't it stand to reason they'll want to compete with Time Warner's more adult focused Bat films and other comic adaptions like Watchmen and or Dark Horse's 300? Disney already control a huge chunk of the kids market they don't need more of it, they're aim as already said earlier is to reach a different audience, the majority of their money comes from their parks so their focus will be to get Marvel characters in there some how and try and bring 20 something males in on holidays, a market they currently don't have but 6 flags and Universal do.

BlitzKrieg

LZ5by5 wrote: »

No, but I honestly feel that since Iron Man and since their plans had been outlined for 2008-2012, that they had finally gotten themselves into a good stride (in regards to film).

wolverine?

Handsome Bob

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

wolverine?

A superhero film produced by Fox in shocking flop.

Sleazus

LZ5by5 wrote: »

A Captain America film needs a modern day Cap who has doubts about his country and where it is headed. Will Disney allow that or will they have a cringworthy flag waving Captain America? I don't like this at all.

Well, given that Captain America: The First Avenger will be released before the deal moves him over to Disney, we'll never know.

And - on your modern day Cap - the movie is going to be a period piece set during World War II (though he will be moved to the modern day for The Avengers), so it looks like you'll have a hard time finding what you're looking for anywhere.

Handsome Bob

Sleazus wrote: »

Well, given that Captain America: The First Avenger will be released before the deal moves him over to Disney, we'll never know.

And - on your modern day Cap - the movie is going to be a period piece set during World War II (though he will be moved to the modern day for The Avengers), so it looks like you'll have a hard time finding what you're looking for anywhere.

Just because it's WWII (Marvel's WWII at that) that doesn't mean Cap has to be some white as white hero. Also, the plan for The Avengers film is to go with modern day Cap who will question how things are being done.

L31mr0d

TheCardHolder

This makes me a sad man.

pwd

i like custard.
I like mustard.
I do not like mustard custard.
I like marvel films.
I like pixar films.
I do not expect to like pixar marvel films.

sprinkles

Disney are in the game to make money and I think if the last few years have proved anything is that the comic book hero on the silver screen is better off playing to a mature audience, while keeping the kids involved for the games/toys. This is a fine line to thread I will admit but with the right directors and screenwirters behind the project it's very achievable and extremely profitable and if this deal brings anything to the table it's the resources to get the right people. With that in mind I think Disney would be mad to dumb down the franchises that are out there by making them all kid-friendly. I think there's plenty of opportunity for Disney to milk the kiddies with Cartoons, computer games, and new toy lines (partially based on the films/cartoons). That doesn't mean that we won't see a marvel/pixar film in the future and to be quite honest I think a collaberation like that might work very well indeed as a seperate entity to the other features.

Also they spent €4billion on this. They did not spend that kind of money to leave characters sitting on the shelf just so no one else can use them. They will most likely saturate the market with every character you can think of that has any remote possibility of making money.

Finally I think that it will make cross character films (ala the avengers), and not to mention cameos, a lot easier to put together having all the properties under one roof. I think the future (post 2012) is bright. Disney can only prove me wrong.

BlitzKrieg

I still cant understand why people think this is worse, everything you are complaining that disney might do (saturate the market, dumb it down to be kid friendly etc etc) Marvel has already done all of this! I cant possible see how disney can do anything worse then the two fantastic four films.

norrie rugger

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

I still cant understand why people think this is worse, everything you are complaining that disney might do (saturate the market, dumb it down to be kid friendly etc etc) Marvel has already done all of this! I cant possible see how disney can do anything worse then the two fantastic four films.

If they make another fantastic 4 movie, I DO NOT CARE, I want Jessica Alba still there

garyt24

Umm Disney taking over Marvel...This makes me uneasy..I find that most marvel movies have had everything including violence,story line mostly the same as the comics and excellent effects... I dont know if disney will keep up this tradition....only time will tell i guess

Fysh

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

I still cant understand why people think this is worse, everything you are complaining that disney might do (saturate the market, dumb it down to be kid friendly etc etc) Marvel has already done all of this! I cant possible see how disney can do anything worse then the two fantastic four films.

Weren't the Fantastic 4 films Fox?

That said, I agree with you about Marvel's saturation of the market. Not so sure about the "dumbing down" aspect, because on the comics front arguably they've done the opposite - they've taken action-comedy type material originally aimed at kids and gradually introduced more mature themes into it, mainly as a way of keeping the audiences of yesteryear hooked because since the 90s crash they aren't attracting many new readers.

The one thing that has me curious about the whole thing (though largely indifferent as I don't follow anything much published by Marvel these days) is how they will behave in future regarding creation of new material. Given Disney's notorious "we own your soul" attitude to IP, and Marvel's existing reliance on an established IP stable (a situation compounded by having effectively conditioned the existing american comics audience to reject characters or comics that they don't already know)....I don't see that as a formula for renewed creativity and diversity of published material, I see it as a recipe for continuing the market-saturation strategy that Marvel have been pursuing for the last five years or so.

Sleazus

garyt24 wrote: »

Umm Disney taking over Marvel...This makes me uneasy..I find that most marvel movies have had everything including violence,story line mostly the same as the comics and excellent effects... I dont know if disney will keep up this tradition....only time will tell i guess

Disney isn't going to tinker with the creative aspect. They bought Marvel because they need something to appeal to young males over the age of twelve. They've got tonnes of stuff for girls in that group, but nada for boys. They bought Marvel so they'd have a company that would fill that market share without having to do anything.

The only creative thing I'm concerned about at the moment is the fact that Disney/Pixar only have second-stringers to deal with at the moment (hance the Ant-Man rumours) and I'm curious what will happen to the Avenger-verse after Paramount's five-picture deal expires. The rights will revert to Disney, and will they continue to build on this long-term project or revert back to stand-alone franchises? Can they re-secure all the talent? Though that would be a problem for Paramount anyway.

There is nothing to worry about and maybe a little to get excited about. Pixar's Ant-Man, anyone?