The Walt Disney Company to Buy Marvel.

[Imagineer2802]

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 $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.

[Imagineer2802]

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 soft advertising sales at ABC and ESPN and drooping consumer spending at Disney World. Disney’s profit in the third quarter 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.

So where will this leave Universal's Islands of Adventure?
Your thoughts....

[martinuk]

i wonder what could happen as well , any ideas?

[sweetemotion]

i don't know what to think, i don't think i like it though lol

[lfcnut]

Wonder if it'll affect IoA in anyway??

[Wobbles]

could also be interesting for Hollywood Studios and where Disney go with that.... as that is probably the natural home for Marvel

[°o°-Hannah-°o°]

not so good for universal as others have said - i wonder if it'll come with a disclaimer saying that disney cannot build any attractions and allowing universal to retain it's rides??? or will it lead to a massive buy out of the universal parks, hmmmm.......

[Redrach1903]

Its bound to have some implications!! Exciting times! Go Disney

[Cal and Dave]

we love IOA and I suppose would still continue to go even without spiderman and captain america et al.

[carys]

I think IOA can survive without Marvel they are expanding with Harry Potter after all.It also makes Disney more edgy and that will create more opportunities for them.They can dowhat they did with the Simpson's ride in Spderman and just change the film lol

[scottishvixen]

I echo everyone else's sentiments and wonder what this will mean for Universal?!

[Mazzy]

Oh wow, that's going to mean some changes then! I don't mind who has Spiderman, as long as they have that ride, as it's one of my all-time favourites! I can't imagine IOA losing their rides though, what about the Hulk ride, that's massive, and green, lol, it would take a lot to change it to something else. Will be keeping an eye on this for sure.

[shamu1]

surely iao will have some sort of contract that cant be broken as to keeping the rides

[jcjcjc]

Now that is a worry, Look how disney have whacked there prices up so high compared to a year ago yet universal,ect have stayed stable.

I hope disney dont buy out universal and the other parks as going to orlando would be a rich persons holiday again.

[markysparky]

dont know if this is a good thing has it gone through or could universal put up a counter offer yet as it would be in there interest to do so