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Disney buys Marvel in 4 billion dollar deal

by on01 September 2009

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We have to have a look at licenses as they expire


In a very surprising move, the Walt Disney Company has decided to purchase comic books company Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars. The agreement will see Disney pay each Marvel shareholder about $30 per share and give them .745 shares of Disney stock for each Marvel share that they own.

The move expands Disney’s power in the entertainment space by adding Marvel’s strong comic books assets as well as the excellent licensing deals that are already in place for video games and movies, for example. Both companies have already approved the deal, but it is unknown whether or not the deal will encounter potential problems with antitrust laws; but the initial thought is that the deal will happen.

As for current licensing deals, Disney has commented that it will have to look at existing licenses on a case by case basis as they expire. However, it is thought that Disney, who has both movie and video game production studios in-house, will obviously want to bring some of these core assets back in-house to maximize their value. This could mean that current license holders might be in danger of losing access to their license to use specific Marvel Universe content as their licenses expire; which could lead to the end of some movie and video game franchises.

Currently, Activision, Sega, Gazillion, and THQ all have Marvel video game licenses of some sort. Activision has a license for Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Wolverine games that runs through 2017. Gazillion’s deal with Marvel runs till 2019 and covers several MMO online titles. Sega has a deal with Marvel for movie tie-in titles that is a multi-year deal, but it is unknown how long it actually runs. THQ has a deal with Marvel for the Marvel Super Hero Squad, but as with Sega it isn’t known exactly how long this deal runs.

While Disney isn’t saying that they are aggressively looking to get these licenses back in-house quickly, we have to assume that this will be the case, as the company will want to maximize the Marvel assets to generate as much revenue as possible to help pay for the deal.

Long-term it is really hard to know if this is the best move for Marvel or not. Consumers might be the ones who suffer with the transition of critical and recently successful assets into Disney control. We have to believe that the move is actually good over the long haul for Disney, however, to snap Marvel up.

Last modified on 01 September 2009
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