Disney buys Marvel Entertainment for $4 Billion
Yes, you read that right.
The boards of both Disney and Marvel Entertainment today approved a $4 Billion purchase deal, allowing Disney to buy Marvel.
From Reuters:
The cash and stock deal values Marvel at $50 per share, or a premium of 29 percent to Marvel’s closing stock price of $38.65 on Friday. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies.
Marvel’s shares shot up to $48.70 in premarket trade. Shares of Disney, which will acquire ownership more than 5,000 Marvel characters, dropped about 3 percent in premarket trade.
Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.
Is Marvel is weak, are they just greedy, or is Disney is undergoing a major rebranding? With the impending release of “Tron: Legacy”, it does seem like a good time for the Mouse to drop his ultra-conservative style and start doing things a little edgier, but it’s not like Disney is exactly hurting financially, so why mess with a winning formula. But it’s not just the movies; Marvel’s empire is built on comic books, many of which feature graphic scenes of brutal violence and the occasional dirty word. How far Disney’s arm will reach in to the creative process remains to be seen, but right now, on Hour Zero, I can see no upside. Hopefully this buyout will be similar to the situation with Pixar, in which Disney’s money only gave Pixar the freedom to make better movies, but considering Pixar never had an image of a mutated man-beast disembowelling a government official with his adamantium razor-claws…I somehow doubt it.
I’d be really surprised if Disney re-brands or radically alters Marvel. Having an established, ‘edgier’ brand gives the Mouse room to expand into less wholesome entertainment without tarnishing Walt’s brand…
hah hah
Ya, a-la Pixar. Hope you’re right; but $4 BILLION is a lot of coin to drop on something for which you don;t get at east SOME creative control.
Even if it is just Tony Stark’s walkin’-around cash.
in fairness they bought something because it works as is, they would be idiotic to fuck with marvel creatively and there HAS to be some folks on their end who realize this
I’ll repeat my Tweet on this: Disney buying Marvel is like Caesar defeating Pompey: it’s irrelevant since the republic was already completely fucked. Wake and smell the loads of crap these two organisations have been shovelling, and get your ‘don’t care’ on because you really shouldn’t care about stuff like this. When Shit-wielders Collide.
That’s usually the best reason to not care about something I find; when someone who doesn’t care tells you not to as well.
That reminds me, my favourite daytime soap, “The Stages of Apathy”, is on.
Exaile forks great!