Spidey has to buy white gloves now

The mouse of ideas? Disney wants to buy Marvel:

Burbank, CA and New York, NY, August 31, 2009 —Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

Speculation is running rife of course, the most obvious nobrainer commentary coming through Rich Johnson:

Jason Wood, comic geek and market analysis tells us that Isaac Perlmutter is expected to have full autonomy, or certainly to begin with. And that publishing comics would only have been a small part of this deal, it’s all about movies, merchandising and theme parks.

Well duh. Comics have only been a pimple on Marvel’s back ever it reinvented itself as a holding library for movie ideas, while Disney has never cared about comics — even back when it tried to publish comics directly in the early nineties, it only lasted until some executive decided the money could be better used on yet another mediocre Disneyland ride. No comic company has ever been worth four billion dollars (certainly no American ones)…

Despite having been pissed off at Marvel for decades now, I still have some fondness for the characters. Having them whored out by Disney might not be that much different from what they’re already subjected to, but Disney does have the ability to make everything they get their hands on slightly worse. Gods know what will happen if Disney insist on making Marvel more family friendly…