Marvel Shareholders Voting on Disney Deal Soon

We are among the many websites and other interested parties who have erroneously stated that Disney and Marvel have merged. There's a pending merger, but the shareholders at Marvel has to OK the day, and that hasn't happened quite yet. But that vote will happen on December 31st, and it's widely expected that Disney won't walk away empty-handed. It will officially put Disney in the superhero business, making it go head-to-head with Warner Bros. and DC Comics, which announced the formation of DC Entertainment in the weeks following the Disney-Marvel agreement. To join the fray, Disney will pay $4 billion. Not exactly chump change, but when you look at what Comcast spent on NBC this week, Marvel seems like a bargain. The big unknown in all this is not whether or not this deal will happen but when a lot of the wheels will be set into motion for Disney. After all, they're not making this deal for any other reason but the movie properties, and Marvel still has contracts in place with several other studios. For example, Marvel's deal with Paramount goes at least through The Avengers or maybe even Iron Man 3, so that's 2012 at the earliest that those movies would be a part of the happiest place on Earth. Fox owns rights to stuff, as does Sony. But Disney obviously thought it was a risk worth taking, even though the superhero hot streak is due to end sooner or later. They always do. Westerns and mobster movies didn't necessarily get bad all of a sudden, but there were so many of them in theaters once upon a time that audiences just got bored with the genres. Of course, with as much money as the comic book movies are making these days, it wouldn't take too many years for Disney to get its investment back.

Comments

[Asana]

Ahh ...pending shmending, the vote is a formality. No company (doing legitimate business anyway) springs a merger on its shareholders with a yell of SURPRISE! This deal is all but done and I doubt we'd have heard about it had things not been well squared away. As for when the wheels start a turnin' on the potential new ventures, I'd say they're underway already at least in concept. Contracts will be honored but I really think what's coming from this merger won't conflict with that in any way. As such, there's plenty that can get a running start when all the i's have been dotted and t's crossed.