Walt Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion

Posted Aug 31st 2009 10:00AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Deals, Walt Disney (DIS), Marvel Entertainment (MVL)

This morning saw no shortages of deals, and now add one more. The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) said it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL) for $4 billion in cash and stock. Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, among others.

MVL shares jumped about 25% in pre-market trade as shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share, which values each Marvel share at $50. MVL closed at $38.65 Friday. Meanwhile, Disney shares fell about 2.6% in pre-market, but have recovered after the beginning of trade.

"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Disney's CEO Iger said. Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's CEO agreed. "Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," he said.

Disney said the boards of the two companies have already approved the deal, and now it's up to shareholders at Marvel who will need to approve the transaction, as well as, of course, the different regulatory approvals.

On the surface, it certainly seems as if the marriage of the two companies makes perfect sense with the plethora of their different characters and Disney's global reach. The question is whether Disney overpaid, but right now it seems that investors, by and large, don't mind the price and like the deal that brings along many cool characters to refresh some of Disney's lineup.

Tags: deal, dis, disney, inthenews, marvel, mvl