[Scarlett.]

Spider-Man will now be under the same umbrella as Mickey Mouse as The Walt Disney Co. is buying Marvel Entertainment Inc. in a $4 billion cash-and-stock deal.

Under the terms of the deal, Marvel shareholders will receive $30 cash and 0.745 shares of Disney stock (NYSE: DIS) for every share of Marvel stock (NYSE: MVL) owned.

Marvel Chief Executive Officer Ike Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and integrate the properties.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs is a director at Disney, as is Dublin-based Sybase Inc. CEO John Chen. James Breyer, a partner at Palo Alto-based Accel Partners, is a director at Marvel.

The deal gives Disney ownership of Marvel's portfolio of more than 5,000 characters, which include such iconic characters such as Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, many of which have been turned into successful movie franchises in recent years.

“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,” Perlmutter said in the statement announcing the deal.

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Disney President and CEO Robert Iger said.

Both boards of directors have approved the deal. No target closing date was announced.

Los Angeles Business from bizjournals

[Tom4784]

It's not exactly a bad thing, Disney owns a fair few studios and such, it doesn't mean they'll be effected in anyway. It was Disney's own Touchstone Studios that produced Kill Bill and a fair few other Tarantino films. The Disney brand itself is aimed at kids and family but their other businesses are aimed at different markets.

If anything it's gonna benefit Marvel, especially on the film front.

[andyman]

Hmmmm..

[Damaris]

Oh no that sucks!

[Tom4784]

It's no different to Warner Bros owning DC comics really. Aside from perhaps cartoons airing on Disney or something like that, it won't affect the running of Marvel or any of it's products. Disney would be foolish to change anything since Marvel comes with it's own built in fanbase.

[Scarlett.]