Jacked from one of my favorite industry sites.
According to the New York Times (via Topless Robot), Disney has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in cash and stock. This deal gives Disney rights to over Marvel’s 5,000+ characters, not to mention control over Marvel’s licensing, publishing, and film production capabilities. This acquisition is interesting for many reasons, not the least of which is that one year ago Marvel re-upped its contract with Paramount to distribute its next five films, including Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and Thor, among others. Furthermore, there are a plethora of loose ends, licensing-wise, that Disney will have to contend with before this deal starts to show its true worth.
At first glance the obvious advantage is Pixar having access to all those great Marvel characters, but the purist in me wonders about the content being diluted. Without a doubt fanboys across the known universe are convulsing uncontrollably right now but it’s just business- big bank take little bank and all that. As long as I get my Heroes For Hire feature I’m good. We’ll see how it goes down.
]]>