Walt Disney Acquires Marvel Entertainment for $4 Billion!
In a massive – wow! – story this morning it appears the 5,000 characters of the Marvel Entertainment Universe will be joining forces with the likes of Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Goofy and the other billion characters in the Disney family. The Walt Disney Company, says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family.
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Disney said today that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.
It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders, which could take up to a year or a longtime as accuisitions usually do.
“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.”
Under the deal Ike Perlmutter, Marvel`s Chief Executive Officer, will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney`s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel`s properties.
Now nothing has been mentioned as to how this will affect Marvel Studios, the film banner of Marvel Entertainment, nor has anything been mentioned on how the licensing will work being that a rival theme park (Universal Studios Adventure Asland park) has a whole section built around Marvel heroes including a Hulk coaster and Spider-man 3D ride.
This is massively huge for the mouse house accquiring such a major entertainment/iconic company like Marvel and their character library. Now Disney has played home entertainment distributor to some of the 90s Marvel cartoons including the popular X-Men series. Again interesting how this will affect deals with Lionsgate Home Entertainment which distributes most of the Marvel Animated films at this point. All I can say at this point is Disney provides some mega-marketing and mega-distribution that benefits Marvel for sure. Can you say more toys?
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