Disney to buy comic book powerhouse Marvel for $4B
By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) said Monday it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment (MAR) for $4 billion
in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including favorites such as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.
Disney said 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, or a premium of 29% to Marvel's closing stock price of $38.65 on Friday.
Marvel shares jumped before the market opened, while Disney shares fell.
Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.
Disney CEO Robert Iger said the acquisition combines Marvel's "strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters" with Disney's "unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties" and ability to maximize value across multiple platforms and territories.
Contributing: Reuters
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.Shopping Cart
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Two icons united..Stan Lee calls acquisition "a perfect marriage."
Like a classic Marvel team-up of superheroes, the merger pairs two American media icons: Walt Disney and Lee.
"Stan Lee has proven himself to be a creative genius on the same level as Walt Disney. Certainly, one can argue that Spider-Man is just as important as Mickey Mouse," says Stephen Fishler, founder of Metropolis Collectibles & ComicConnect, the world's largest dealer of vintage comics.
In a phone interview, Lee called the deal "a perfect marriage." He now is Marvel chairman emeritus and founder of POW! Entertainment. Lee, 86, recalled his early days at Marvel Comics— then called Timely Comics — in the 1940s. "In those days, I never thought anything like this would be possible. All I hoped was that the comic books would sell, I'd keep my job and I'd be able to pay the rent."
Lee never met Walt Disney ("one of the regrets of my life") but says he was 12 when he got a copy of one of the first coffee-table books, The Art of Walt Disney. "To me, the Disney studio was the greatest entity in the world," Lee says. POW! Entertainment has development deals with Disney.
Iger dismissed any concerns that Disney would put its wholesome imprint on Marvel's darkly shaded characters. "It's not about putting the Disney name on those characters," he says. "Our general desire is to create high-quality content. That is what this deal shares with the Pixar deal."
Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada took to Twitter on Monday to reassure fans. "Everyone relax, this is incredible news and all is well at Marvel U," he tweeted. "Everybody take a deep breath, all your favorite comics remain unchanged. If you're familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you'll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry."
Lee agreed. "Knowing the people at Disney and Marvel as well as I do, I can't see any issues at all."
Contributing: David Colton, Jefferson Graham, Scott Bowles
Wonder how many Layoffs this will cause.
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