Introduction
Marvel
Marvel is an originally a comic book publish company that today pushed its comic book IPs into games and movies. Marvel was at first a company that published superhero comics under the name Timely Publications, then the Atlas Group, until finally in 1963, used the name Marvel Comics Group to describe its main promotional product, comic book superheroes. Marvel eventually developed into Marvel Enterprises, and in the early 2000s published very successful media in the form of games and movies of its IPs such as Spiderman and X-men. In 2009 Disney announced that it would acquire Marvel for 4 billion dollars. The deal specified that Marvel shareholders would receive $30 in cash along with .745 shares of Disney for every Marvel share. Marvel stock shot up by 25%, but Disney’s dropped by 80 cents. Disney’s shares dropped because a lot of investors believed that Disney over paid for the acquisition. According to John Holbeck, is a senior vice president of finance at Merrill Corporation, Disney paid 10 times the EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. Normally such acquisitions result in a multiple of 4 to 6. This results in a huge goodwill that is not overvalued. Marvel has over 5000 characters including big IPs such as Spiderman, Fantastic 4, and X-men that could help Disney finally win an important customer base, younger males. Disney will also receive in the Marvels Enterprises’ important divisions such as the film, licensing and publishing. Each have contributed to 102.7, 242.3, and 47.3 million respectively to operating income. These Marvel assets will now be combined with Disney’s licensing team, which is regarded as the best in the world, to boost the potential of Marvel Enterprises’ divisions especially when it comes to financing. In the past financing was Marvel’s biggest hurdle. The only problems that arise are Disney’s involvement with Marvel’s characters that could ruin existing characters and pre-existing Marvel deals such as Sony’s rights to make Spiderman movies.
Sources:
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/marvel-entertainment-group-inc-history/
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/31/news/companies/disney_marvel/
http://www.newsarama.com/24999-disney-s-4-billion-marvel-buy-was-it-worth-it.html
http://dorkshelf.com/2009/08/31/disney-to-acquire-marvel-entertainment/
http://www.thedisneymoviereview.com/40/