Marvel shareholders approve Disney merger
Yay! (we are DIS shareholders. See our previous post on the merger here)
The deal will give Disney Marvel’s more than 5,000 characters and its licensing, comic book and movie business. Disney’s paying $4.3 billion dollars for the company, a price that’s risen along with Disney’s stock price since the deal was announced in August; stockholders receive $30 per share in cash plus .745 Disney shares for each Marvel share.Now we’ll be watching to see which Marvel Characters Disney pulls out and puts in the spotlight and when the comic book characters will start showing up in the theme parks. One place Marvel’s characters are sure to show up fairly soon is Disney XD, a new successful cable channel targeting boys.
The deal ties Disney to rival media giants, as Marvel is committed to deals with other media companies. Marvel and Sony Pictures Entertainment are in a joint venture for Spider-Man merchandise, and Sony is making Spider-Man 4, due out in 2011. Marvel also has a distribution deal with Paramount Pictures for its next five films, including “Iron Man 2,” (expected to be the biggest film next year) and “Thor” .. . And Marvel characters are licensed to Universal Orlando’s theme parks, which are owned by Blackstone and GE’s NBC Universal….
Moderate in the Middle 