Will Mickey team up with Spidey now? Or maybe the X-Men will turn up as Hannah Montana's body guards?
Walt Disney Co. this morning announced it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment — parent of the Marvel Comics empire that includes such super characters as Iron Man, Spider-Man and Captain America — for $4 billion.
Marvel shareholders will be getting $30 a share and 0.745 Disney shares for each one of Marvey that they now own.
TechCrunch notes that Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter will continue to oversee the Marvel properties.
Update at 10:30 a.m. ET. More on the deal:
— MarketWatch says it's up to debate whether Disney can " take advantage of the multitude of Marvel characters by creating lucrative new franchises in movies and across other platforms." Also, that Disney CEO Bob Iger "is taking a sizable chance with his own reputation, too. So far in his tenure, he has been a darling of the investment community. With this decision, he expects that Wall Street will applaud his sense of adventure and willingness to take a risk."
— The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal is live-blogging the conference call that Disney and Marvel executives are holding this morning. Iger, it reports, said that Disney's marketers will help unlock Marvel's "treasure trove" of characters.
— As you might imagine, many are tweeting about this. One example:
All the main Disney characters are now considered mutants!
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