Monday, August 31, 2009

Disney to acquire Marvel for $4 billion

The world is crumbling apart... fire from the skies, the seas boiling... cats and dogs living together... Disney is buying Marvel!

Check it out - http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2009/2009_0831_disney_and_marvel_entertainment.html

Assuming everything goes as planned Disney will walk away with the 5000 characters off Marvels stable and be able to leverage their significant marketing power behind the comic book goliath. Not sure of the speed of the acquisition or how Disney will handle the various properties but it definitely is big news.

Question: is this a bad thing? Really... I'm not sure. I want to think that it could be good. I mean Marvel is wonderful and all, but there's no denying they've got a problem with focusing their direction. Maybe some of the mouse house's bureaucracy will help Marvel. At the least Marvel will hopefully stop just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. And really even with the success of Marvel Studios, all it would take is a few mistakes on some of their bigger properties to bring them back to square one, bankruptcy. So is this a good move? I know I hope so. We'll have to see how it all shakes out

A few things to consider, will Marvel keep their name / branding? What happens to Kingdom comics? How exactly does Disney integrate Marvel into their unique style? What does this specifically mean for Marvel comic books, Marvel films, and Marvel licensed products?
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