Disney's Marvel deal (VAR, THR, NYT, TBP, BIZ)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Yesterday's surprise announcement of Disney's $4 billion acquisition of Marvel has spilled a lot of Internet ink. Following is a round-up of some of the more salient points made about the deal - and its potential fallout.

To recap, the deal gives Disney access to Marvel's stable of over 5,000 characters including Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk and the X-Men.

Although many of the characters are currently under contract at other studios, the deal has the potential to yield billions for Disney by turning Marvel's library into movies, TV shows, Internet properties, theme park attractions, videogames, toys, licensed merchandise and still more comic books.

Disney will not "rebrand Marvel as Disney," as chairman Robert Iger said. Instead, the general consensus is that the move will help Disney expand into franchises for boys, for example. Where it flourishes with Hannah Montana's tween-girl acolytes, the studio will now be able to capitalize on Marvel's brooding and boy-friendly cast of characters.

Conversely, cautions the Risky Business blog, don't be surprised if the studio accesses Disney's stable of talent to make some pics more girl-friendly.

"The real difference maker with Marvel," a rival studio chief told The Big Picture blog, "is that it makes movies where the parents are just as excited to see the film as their kids. That's the difference between a movie barely making $100 million - like a lot of Disney's homegrown products - and a movie making $300 or $400 million. It's a whole different playing field."

"Marvel's brand and its treasure trove of content will now benefit from our extraordinary reach," Iger told The New York Times. "We paid a price that reflects the value they've created and the value we can create as one company. It's a full price, but a fair price."

Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter would likely agree on that "fair price." The exec who will continue to oversee the company, is also Marvel's largest shareholder. After outmaneuvering Ron Perelman and Carl Icahn to acquire Marvel out of bankruptcy in the late 90s, he will receive about $1.44 billion in cash and Disney stock via the current deal.

Wall Street reacted to the deal by sending shares of Disney down 3% to about $26. As BIZ points out, the cost of the acquisition could slow down other big investments. Standard & Poor's gave the deal a Negative Watch rating, "concerned" about the "potential issuance of debt" and "high purchase price."

However, DreamWorks Animation, considered a takeover candidate, reached a 52-week high in morning trading.

"I find it a positive that a deal has been announced in the space," Natixis Bleichroeder analyst Alan Gould told The Hollywood Reporter. "I am not expecting a wave of deals, but I do think this announcement bodes well for DWA."

UBS analyst Michael Morris, however, said he sees "negative read-throughs" for Viacom, Discovery and Hasbro.

"Viacom is unlikely to retain distribution rights to Marvel films after the agreement" that covers five more releases, he said. "Discovery/Hasbro's new cable network joint venture was expected to include some Marvel programming, which seems less likely now."

As for video game firms, it will take a few years before they'll feel any effects of the Disney acquisition. Game licenses will come up for renewal between 2011 and 2017, THR notes.

Variety has details on the major movie properties:

* Sony will continue to control Spider-Man through a deal that doesn't lapse. Three more films are planned for the franchise, with the next set to bow in summer 2011.

*Paramount will continue to distribute Marvel's next five pictures, starting with the "Iron Man" sequel next summer and including a planned third installment.

*Fox retains the right to make movies based on Daredevil; the Fantastic Four and the X-Men in perpetuity as long as the studio has films based on those characters in active development.

An existing deal between Marvel and Universal's theme parks will have to be worked out. Currently, the deal prohibits Disney from building a new ride around the Marvel characters already in action at U's parks.

But certain Marvel characters can be immediately integrated into Disney's theme parks in California, Paris and Hong Kong - Walt Disney World in Orlando is off limits because of a pact Marvel has in place with Universal Studios there, says the NYT.

Still, Marvel has quite a stash of unexploited characters.

What the Marvel deal really means, opines The Big Picture, is that Disney is "radically restructuring its creative aspirations. Once a company that drew inspiration from within, it is now paying top dollar to buy mature businesses - first Pixar and now Marvel - to feed its merchandising assembly lines."