The Walt Disney Co. announced Monday that it has agreed to purchase comic book and film company Marvel Entertainment for about $4 billion. The deal is valued at $50 per Marvel share, which represents a more than a 29% premium to Friday's closing share price.
The myriad of press accounts about, and analyst reports on, this proposed deal published over the last two days unintentionally provide compelling insight into the future (or lack thereof) of comic book publishing. Almost without exception they have noted, with caution, that Marvel already has a myriad of long-term deals in place with movie, merchandising and theme park partners (including Paramount for movie distribution, Universal for theme parks, and Hasbro for toys), that will take years to run their course before Disney will be able to realize the full benefits of this acquisition. They've also all noted that Marvel owns the rights to over 5,000 popular super-hero characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man.
The myriad of press accounts about, and analyst reports on, this proposed deal published over the last two days unintentionally provide compelling insight into the future (or lack thereof) of comic book publishing. Almost without exception they have noted, with caution, that Marvel already has a myriad of long-term deals in place with movie, merchandising and theme park partners (including Paramount for movie distribution, Universal for theme parks, and Hasbro for toys), that will take years to run their course before Disney will be able to realize the full benefits of this acquisition. They've also all noted that Marvel owns the rights to over 5,000 popular super-hero characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man.
I've not read a single account that mentions anything at all about comic book publishing, in any way.
Posts
I was wondering what universal was going to do with their theme park. I guess they have the right to the characters there until the contract runs out. Then what? Universal better act quick and find soemthing else (Spongebob and fairly Odd Parents, anyone?) or they're going to have some pretty blah rollercoasters in a couple of years
ReplyDelete