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Disney Buys Marvel For $4B

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wolverine-with-mouse-ears dept.

whisper_jeff writes "Disney has announced they will be purchasing Marvel. 'Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.'"

10 of 423 comments (clear)

  1. Re:great! by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Informative
    Sounds like it....

    10:32: Disney: Cost savings were not the big driving reason for the deal. What really drives is synergies over time. It will create enhanced growth rate for Disney over time.
    10:33: Iger: Even with DVD sales slowing, movies with strong, brand name characters such as Marvel characters will hold up better than others. "It's not bulletproof"

    -- WSJ coverage of investor call (ongoing) emphasis mine

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  2. Re:It could be worse... by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    They could have bought DC Comics.

    Warner Bros. already bought DC, but that wasn't necessarily "all, folks" for fans.

  3. Re:Bye bye marvel... by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Informative

    Disney didn't mess with Pixar too much, when they acquired them.

    Conditions were laid out as part of the deal to ensure that Pixar remained a separate entity.

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    You can't take the sky from me...

  4. Re:Batman and Porky Pig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Gargoyles was produced by Buena Vista Television. A division of Disney.

  5. Re:GREAT! by camg188 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't worry about that.
    Disney also owns Touchstone, Miramax, Hollywood Pictures, ABC and ESPN. The original reason Disney bought Touchstone was to release non-G rated movies separate from the Disney label.
    Touchstone, Hollywood and Miramax all release R-rated movies including the likes of Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, Reservoir Dogs, The Crow and Con-Air.

  6. Re:GREAT! by jerwinch · · Score: 5, Informative

    as the parent of a 5 year-old and a 1.5 year-old, i could not agree with you more. the moment we disallowed the disney channel (just playhouse disney -- aimed at preschoolers) and only allowed pbs, there was a noticeable attitude change in my older son.

  7. Re:GREAT! by mqduck · · Score: 4, Informative

    he original reason Disney bought Touchstone was to release non-G rated movies separate from the Disney label.

    I'm pretty sure that Disney itself founded Touchstone.

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    Property is theft.
  8. Re:Fox and New Corp by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Informative

    I hate Fox and Rupurt Murdoch, but they were the ones to push the envelope with media. It's too bad Fox didn't have the foresight to buy properties like Marvel so that the seriously adult themes in comics can be fully developed.

    Disney bought Miramax in 1993. That's the studio that has released just about every Quentin Taratino film as well as titles like Priest and the Crying Game. I'm not saying Miramax is perfect, far from it, but even under Disney they've released many movies with adult themes.

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  9. Re:Maybe Marvel will change Disney by Isaac-Lew · · Score: 3, Informative
    I hope you're being sarcastic:
    • Spider-man (no parents, father-figure/uncle dies violent death)
    • Hulk (abusive father who beats mother to death)
    • Wolverine (possibly illegitimate, most of family kills each other)
    • Daredevil (mother abandons him at an early age, alcoholic father dies a violent death)
    • Professor X (father dies, abusive step-father, his son & step-brother become super-villains)
    • Storm (parents die, grows up on the street)
    • Cyclops (loses parentsat a young age, grows up in an orphanage, daughter is from another timeline, son taken from him & grows up in the future)
    • Cable (see Cyclops)
  10. Re:Bye bye marvel... by ajs · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is why I typically don't bother posting to Slashdot about this sort of thing... Why would you expect an example of their genre diversity (which is what I said that list was) would be exhaustive?

    Since clearly you mistook that for an exhaustive list, here's the actual list of films from the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group: