LOS ANGELES - Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing such characters as Iron Man and Spider-Man into the family of Mickey Mouse and WALL-E.
Under the deal, expected to close by year’s end, Disney will acquire rights to 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were cocreated by the comic book legend Stan Lee.
Disney chief executive Robert Iger said Marvel’s comic books, TV shows, movies, and video games amounted to “a treasure trove.’’ Iger said the deal would bring benefits like the ones Disney got from buying “Toy Story’’ creator Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion in 2006.
“The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy,’’ he said, and “to build a business stronger than the sum of its parts.’’
For Marvel, Iger said, being in the Disney camp would mean better global distribution and better relationships with retailers. Another storied comic book maker, DC Comics, has been under the wings of a major studio since 1969, when Warner Bros. bought the home of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
Marvel’s chairman, Mort Handel, called Disney “a perfect home for our great collection of characters.’’
One point of the deal is to help Disney appeal to young men, who have flocked to theaters to see Marvel superheroes such as Iron Man in recent years. That contrasts with Disney’s recent successes among young women with such fare as “Hannah Montana’’ and the Jonas Brothers.
However, analyst David Joyce of Miller Tabak & Co. noted that the $4 billion offer was at “full price.’’
Marvel shareholders would receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday’s closing stock prices.
Disney investors were probably unhappy to learn that the deal will reduce earnings per share in the short term and might not turn positive until the 2012 fiscal year. Marvel is profitable - it made $206 million in its last fiscal year on revenue of $676 million - but Disney’s earnings per share will drop partly because the company will issue 59 million new shares.
Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.
