marvel comics is assimilated

[Stevie H]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/31/d...o_n_272608.html

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. is punching its way into the universe of superheroes and their male fans with a deal announced Monday to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion, bringing characters such as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and "Toy Story."

 

The surprise cash-and-stock deal sent Spidey senses tingling in the comic book world. It could lead to new rides, movies, action figures and other outlets for Marvel's 5,000 characters, although Marvel already was aggressively licensing its properties for such uses.

 

The deal won't have benefits right away, and Disney stock sank on the news. Disney expects a short-term profit hit, and Marvel characters from X-Men to Daredevil are locked up in deals with other movie studios and theme parks. But Disney's CEO, Robert Iger, promised an action-packed future.

 

"`Sparks will fly' is the expression that comes to mind," Iger told analysts.

 

Stan Lee, the 86-year-old co-creator of "Spider-Man" and many more of Marvel's most famous characters, said he was thrilled to be informed of the marriage Monday morning.

 

"I love both companies," he said. "From every point of view, this is a great match."

 

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and marks Disney's biggest acquisition since it purchased Pixar Animation Studios Inc., the maker of "Up" and "Cars," for $7.4 billion in stock in 2006.

 

Marvel would follow another storied comic book publisher into the arms of a media conglomerate. DC Comics, the home of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, was bought by Warner Bros. – now part of Time Warner Inc. – in 1969.

 

Buying Marvel is meant to improve Disney's following among men and boys. Disney acknowledges it lost some of its footing with guys as it poured resources into female favorites such as "Hannah Montana" and the Jonas Brothers.

 

"Disney will have something guys grew up with and can experience with their kids, especially their sons," said Gareb Shamus, whose company Wizard Entertainment Group runs several of the Comic-Con conventions around the nation.

 

Marvel TV shows already account for 20 hours per week of programming on Disney's recently rebranded, boy-focused cable network, Disney XD, and that looks likely to increase, Iger said. The shows are "right in the wheelhouse for boys," he said.

 

There will be some lag before Marvel's trove of characters are fully developed at Disney, because of licensing deals Marvel has with other studios.

 

For example, Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures is developing the next three "Spider-Man" sequels, starting with "Spider-Man 4" set for a May 2011 release. News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox has the long-term movie rights to the "X-Men," "Fantastic Four," "Silver Surfer" and "Daredevil" franchises.

 

Both studios maintain those rights in perpetuity unless they fail to make more movies.

 

Separately, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures has a five-picture distribution deal for Marvel-made movies, the first of which will be "Iron Man 2," set for release next May. Paramount said it expects to continue working with Marvel and Disney.

 

General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios has an attraction called Marvel Super Hero Island in Orlando, Fla., that will stay in existence as long as Universal wants to keep it there and follows the contract terms, Universal said.

 

Disney said it will honor and re-examine Marvel's licensing deals upon expiration and may extend the profitable ones. Iger noted that when it bought Pixar, that company also had third-party licensing agreements that eventually expired, allowing the companies to move forward together.

 

Despite beginning to make its own movies, starting with "Iron Man" last year, licensing remained a key driver of Marvel's $206 million in profit and $676 million in revenue last year. Iger said Disney could give Marvel broader global distribution and better relationships with retailers to sell Marvel products.

 

However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that the $4 billion offer was at "full price."

 

Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50, a 29 percent premium over Friday's closing stock price. The final ratio of cash and stock will be adjusted to ensure Disney stock makes up at least 40 percent of the final offer.

 

Marvel shares shot up $9.72, or 25 percent, to close at $48.37 on Monday. Disney shares fell 80 cents, or 3 percent, to $26.04.

 

Disney investors were probably unhappy that the deal will reduce earnings per share in the short term and might not turn positive until the company's 2012 fiscal year. Disney's earnings per share will drop partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares, and partly because Marvel plans to release two costly blockbusters, "Thor" and "The First Avenger: Captain America" in 2011. DVD sales of those films likely won't roll in until fiscal 2012.

 

Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

 

If it works out, Marvel's chief executive, Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, 66, will pocket a hefty payday. He snatched Marvel assets out of bankruptcy in 1998, in a deal that valued the company at around $450 million including debt, outmaneuvering investors Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman. His 37 percent stake in Marvel is now worth about $1.5 billion.

[Bailo]

This is bad news for comic fans I think. Can't see Disney supporting runs like the Marvel Max Punisher series.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Can't see Disney supporting runs like the Marvel Max Punisher series.

 

if it makes money, of course they will.

[matty]

this is the biggest 'who gives a s***' story since So Haunt Me was cancelled.

[stressederic]

Isn't there going to be a problem with Universal Studios? Don't they have a Marvel Superhero Island at one of their theme parks?

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

Isn't there going to be a problem with Universal Studios? Don't they have a Marvel Superhero Island at one of their theme parks?

 

it would hardly be beyond the wit of multimillionaire businessmen and lawyers to sort that out, would it?

 

presumably it's a licensing deal that has an expiry date, anyway.

[Bailo]

if it makes money, of course they will.

That's just in, not sure it did. But Marvel still ran it as other bigger titles make them the money.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

That's just in, not sure it did. But Marvel still ran it as other bigger titles make them the money.

 

they'd have cancelled it themselves if it was loss-making

[Gilps]

That's just in, not sure it did. But Marvel still ran it as other bigger titles make them the money.

 

Even best selling comics don't make real money anymore anyway. That's why in the Marvel stable (with the odd exception, like Punisher's just about sustainable sales) any book that isn't Spider-Man, Hulk, F4, or in the Avengers or X-Men families gets canned within 20 issues. Not enough people buy them. Not surprise when total comic sales are around 20% of what they were in the mid 80s. More so than any other traditional form of pop culture, comics have suffered from the rise of computer games.

 

Publishing in any case now accounts for around 10% of Marvel Entertainment's profits. The rest is from licencing already - to the films, the games and the toys. Given Disney's overall business model and areas of expertise, I would expect that trend to continue. They'll hardly be looking at the books, unless they're real loss making ones anyway.

 

The real shakeup from a comics point of view will be when they end Diamond's distribution monopoly, probably damaging the direct market to LCS's - which overall will be no bad thing, if they get a newstand presence back for the comics. You might they actually get a new generation of comics fans, instead of just selling them to an ever dwindling pool of 30 and 40 something fanboys.

 

As long as there's not too drastic an input from Disney into the creative proces of the actual comics, I think this will actually be a good thing. Given what a small proportion of the revenues Disney are looking at the books account for, there's no reason to suppose they intend to be hands on in that sense. They've not been with Pixar and that's a field where they were far more likely to be so.

 

I could be proved wrong over time and it could be a disaster. But I'm not panicing and at this stage think it's probably on balance a good thing. Nice to have the future of the comics secured really, considering how bleak the past couple of decades and the past few years especially have been for the industry.

[Earl Hafler]

this is the biggest 'who gives a s***' story since So Haunt Me was cancelled.

 

Aye, and i know my comics.

[magic melia]

Will my issue 1 ultimate spiderman increase in value on the back of this news

[Benzo-13]

F***in hate Disney.

[Buzz]

I like Disney, I love Marvel, but they should no way be put together.

[oakie bob]

Easy Move Spiderman 3D and Hulk to Disney HS and leave Dr Doom where it is, or Disney will be making money off Universal with the merchandising revenue

[Stanley Leisure]

Disney know what they're doing, why would they happily pay 2.5 billion for something to then make changes to its business model?

 

What did they do when they bought pixar? F*ck all because they knew they'd bought something that already made billions.

[Mike]

the dark mouse

[cymrococh]

the dark mouse

Making a joke about a DC character in a Marvel thread?

 

Epic fail.

[Gilps]

Can't see Disney supporting runs like the Marvel Max Punisher series.

 

In any case, the Punisher Max series has been pretty poor since Ennis left the title. Giving singe arcs to different creative teams has been a mistake, it hasn't helped that they've all been mediocre at best and its no surprise that the readership's dropped by about 15,000 to around two thirds of what it was during Ennis' run. If the trade sales weren't holding it, it might well have been cancelled by now.

 

Having said that, they're relaunching in November with a long term creative partnership taking a long story approach and, given that Jason Aaron's going to writing it I'm hopeful it'll improve considerably. On the downside, Steve Dillon will be doing the art, which will make it look more cartoonish than the tone should be. But you can't have everything.

[Mike]

Making a joke about a DC character in a Marvel thread?

 

Epic fail.

 

hehe

[Bailo]

In any case, the Punisher Max series has been pretty poor since Ennis left the title. Giving singe arcs to different creative teams has been a mistake, it hasn't helped that they've all been mediocre at best and its no surprise that the readership's dropped by about 15,000 to around two thirds of what it was during Ennis' run. If the trade sales weren't holding it, it might well have been cancelled by now.

 

Having said that, they're relaunching in November with a long term creative partnership taking a long story approach and, given that Jason Aaron's going to writing it I'm hopeful it'll improve considerably. On the downside, Steve Dillon will be doing the art, which will make it look more cartoonish than the tone should be. But you can't have everything.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Ennis' run was superb though, I'd never thought I'd see The Punisher in that tone, which it needed to be.

 

Didn't know that about Aaron & Dillon, looking forward to that.

[Gilps]

Aaron's going to have him up against a Max version of the Kingpin and Bullseye too, which should be good.

 

Interview here

 

Ennis' run is phenomenal. One of the great works in comic book history. From the "Born" miniseries and "Tyger" and "The Cell", through the 60 issues of the main Max series, it's flawless. The definitive take on the character.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Gilps

[Buzz]

Ennis' run is phenomenal. One of the great works in comic book history. From the "Born" miniseries and "Tyger" and "The Cell", through the 60 issues of the main Max series, it's flawless. The definitive take on the character.

Hear Hear, totally agree

Never collected from the beginning like i should have and now I am slowly collecting the TPB's.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Buzz

[smithdown]

this is the biggest 'who gives a s***' story since So Haunt Me was cancelled.

 

This is correct

[Benzo-13]

Aaron's going to have him up against a Max version of the Kingpin and Bullseye too, which should be good.

 

Interview here

 

Ennis' run is phenomenal. One of the great works in comic book history. From the "Born" miniseries and "Tyger" and "The Cell", through the 60 issues of the main Max series, it's flawless. The definitive take on the character.

Have the whole lot.

Agree totally, it defines Frank Castle and his motivations perfectly.