“Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion”

This is a big deal. Per the Hollywood Reporter:

Mickey and Donald, meet Spider-Man!

 Disney is purchasing Marvel for $4 billion. Disney said Monday that it will acquire the superhero factory in a cash and stock transaction that values each share of Marvel at $50, a 29% premium to where the stock closed Friday.

The rationale for such a huge investment? Two-fold:

Disney acquires ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters to be overseen by Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, who is charged with cherry-picking when and where they’ll show up within Disney’s vast empire, including online and in video games.

5,000 pre-branded characters. And the second thing:

“It helps give Disney a new, rational area to expand its exposure to younger audiences, especially boys, in which Disney had lost some balance in recent years.” Iger said more Marvel content will, for example, be seen on the boys-centric Disney XD channel.

Disney started up Disney XD TV network as an attempt to regain some momentum with young boys (age 8+). But the ratings have been tepid, despite 20 hours of programming from Marvel. Look for that number to increase significantly.

Other reports on the deal:

Daily Variety

Los Angeles Times

CNN

Huffington Post

The Wrap

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