Disney to buy Marvel?

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It looks like Walt Disney is to buy Marvel Entertainment in a $4bn (£2.5bn) deal (subject to board approval).

This means that Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters including Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Thor and the X-Men.

Some how I don't think this will be a great partnership or good for either brand. Disney have long been associated with animated children's films. With profits down 26% on last year they needed to add something new to their products. There's only so much Mickey Mouse merchandising a company can sell after-all. Marvel aims at an older market, a 'typical' Marvel comic reader average age is 21-25 (taking 36% in a recent Marvel online age poll). So, for Disney they have access to a wider audience. And for Marvel? Well, with the backing of Disney it may guarantee a future for the comics company in a declining market and it will certainly help profits through merchandise sales. It may even lead to more movies, games, or other future avenues.

Robert Iger, Disney president and chief exec said "We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

Marvel chief executive Ike Perlmutter commented "Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses. This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."

Marvel characters are always appearing in third party collaborations for mutual benefit for example on current clothing lines with French Connection and Next. These add a touch of 'cool' though, not something you'd associate with Disney. Can we now expect to see the Disney stores around the UK full of Spiderman lunch boxes and X-men pyjamas? Or maybe something a little more 'adult' like Deadpool or Carnage! I'm sure it will just alienate the Marvel fans...

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