[Infowarrior] - OT: Disney buying Marvel Comics

[Richard Forno]

(For geeks everywhere...)

Disney to Pay $4 Billion for Comic Giant Marvel
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

The Walt Disney Company said Monday that it would buy the comic book  
giant Marvel Entertainment for about $4 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Marvel shareholders will receive a $30 a  
share in cash plus about 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share  
they own. The boards of both companies have approved the deal, which  
was valued at $50 a share.

With the acquisition, Disney will acquire more than 5,000 Marvel  
characters, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and  
the X-Men.

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands  
provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value  
creation,” the chief executive of Disney, Robert A. Iger, said in a  
statement.

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

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 acquisition comes as Disney, with its vast theme park operations  
and television advertising business, has been struggling because of  
soft advertising sales at ABC and ESPN and drooping consumer spending  
at theme parks. Disney’s profit in the third quarter, which ended June  
27, dropped 26 percent.

Over all, Disney’s net income fell to $954 million, or 51 cents a  
share, from $1.28 billion, or 66 cents a share, in the year-ago  
period. Revenue fell 7 percent, to $8.6 billion. Earnings per share  
for the current quarter included a one-cent restructuring charge  
related to an accounting gain. Excluding that charge, Disney narrowly  
beat Wall Street’s expectations.