Monday, August 31, 2009

Disney to Buy Marvel for $4 Billion

Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion

Deal requires antitrust review

LOS ANGELES -- The Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel EntertainmentInc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man andSpider-Man into the Disney family.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters.

Disney said Monday 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.

3 comments:

Roger Alford said...

Holy Crap! I just saw this on PW. Had to check the date to make sure this wasn't an April Fools joke. What does this mean for all the Marvel attractions at Universal theme parks? Surely, they're safe for now, but what about when the contracts run out?

After YEARS of trying, I guess Disney finally has their hero franchise and then some.

DecoderRing said...

"5000 characters including Iron Man". Not Spiderman, not the Hulk.... Think back 5 years and tell me if you would have EVER thought Iron Man would even be mentioned in an article like this.

Also, wasn't all of Marvel worth the price of a limited edition foil variant cover not all that long ago? Don't you wish you bought stock back then?

Roger Alford said...

Another reason to build a time machine.