Move over Mickey Mouse, the X-Men are moving in.
The Walt Disney Co announced on Monday it had agreed to add the X-Men, Iron Man and Spider-Man to its vast cast of characters with a surprise agreement to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc for some US$4 billion.
The deal, Disney’s biggest since its acquisition of animation house Pixar three years ago, will combine the comic book giant and its huge stable of action heroes with the Disney entertainment empire.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
“Adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Disney president and chief executive Robert Iger said.
“We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney,” Iger said.
Disney and Marvel, in a joint statement, said that Marvel shareholders would receive a total of US$30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.
It said that based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, the transaction value is US$50 per Marvel share, or approximately US$4 billion.
Shares of Marvel soared 25.15 percent in New York to close at US$48.37. Disney shares shed 2.98 percent to close at US$26.04.
The deal, which caught analysts and the market by surprise, was announced shortly before the opening bell on Wall Street.
Besides Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men, Marvel’s cast of more than 5,000 characters includes Captain America, the Fantastic Four and Thor.
Marvel chief executive Ike Perlmutter 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,” he said.
Disney and Marvel said Perlmutter would continue to oversee the Marvel properties, which include Marvel Studios, Marvel Animation and Marvel Comics.
Perlmutter will “work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties,” their joint statement said.
Disney and Marvel said the boards of directors of both companies have approved the transaction but it still needs the green light from US anti-trust authorities and Marvel shareholders.
Iger said the companies hope to conclude the deal by the end of the year.
He compared the purchase of Marvel to Disney’s 2006 acquisition of Pixar Animation for US$7.4 billion, saying it presents “similar opportunities.”
Pixar is the San Francisco-area studio behind such hits such as Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up.
The agreement drew a thumbs-up from most analysts.
“Strategically, we view Marvel as a good fit for Disney,” said Hale Holden of Barclays Capital. “We expect Disney to drive synergies across the Marvel characters at its parks and cable networks.”
But Standard and Poor’s said it was putting Disney’s long-term “A” corporate credit rating and short-term “A-1” rating on credit watch with negative implications.
“In our view, Disney may need to issue debt to supplement its cash for this transaction,” the ratings company said.
Marvel is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1939 as comic book publisher Timely Comics.
In addition to comics, Marvel characters also feature in movies, animated features, videogames and toys such as action figures.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique