The Walt Disney Co. has added "Spider-Man," "Iron Man" and the "X-Men" to its vast cast of characters with a surprise agreement to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc. for US$4 billion ($4.7 billion).

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

Disney and Marvel, in a joint statement, said that Marvel shareholders would receive a total of US$30 ($35) per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.

It said that based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, the transaction value is US$50 ($59) per Marvel share or approximately US$4 billion.

The deal, which caught analysts and the market by surprise, was announced shortly before the opening bell on Wall Street.

Besides "Spider-Man," "Iron Man" and the "X-Men," Marvel's cast of over 5,000 characters includes "Captain America," the "Fantastic Four" and "Thor."

Marvel chief executive Ike Perlmutter said 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," he said.

Disney and Marvel said Perlmutter would continue to oversee the Marvel properties, which include Marvel Studios, Marvel Animation and Marvel Comics.
Perlmutter will "work directly with Disney's global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel's properties," their joint statement said.

Disney and Marvel said that the boards of directors of both companies have approved the transaction but it still needs the green light from US anti-trust authorities and Marvel shareholders.
Iger said the companies hope to conclude the deal by the end of the year.

He compared the purchase of Marvel to Disney's 2006 acquisition of Pixar Animation for 7.4 billion dollars saying it presents "similar opportunities."

Pixar is the San Francisco-area studio behind such hits such as "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Finding Nemo," "Ratatouille," "WALL-E" and "Up."
Marvel is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1939 as comic book publisher Timely Comics.
Besides comics, Marvel characters also feature in movies, animated features, videogames and toys such as action figures.





I'm actually REALLY surprised! Honestly don't know what it will mean for the comics, but I would feel slightly annoyed if Marvel suddenly had a Disney logo on the comic books.
Stupid Mickey MAUS.

I am disgusted, period. It makes me want to throw up. I read about this earlier, and Disney DOES NOT belong owning Marvel. Not at all.

I just never in a million years saw that coming. Not keen on the idea at all.

That's awful. Don't get me wrong, I like Disney, but leave Marvel alone!!

well this is worrying, given that disney brought us hannah montana and the jonas brothers.

Wonder if the Xmen will be part of the Mouseketeer show.

Disney better not try changing marvel and make it rated G for everything. Marvel and disney are 2 different spectrums.

*runs to the corner and cries tears of sorrow*

uh. Seriously? That's retarded.

Omg. Oh please tell me they aren't going to make X-Men The Musical now.....This is just disturbing. So so disturbing. I love Disney too, but this just...wow...it doesn't sit well with me.

Was watching report on it on IGN.com, they brought up some points about CGI movies by Pixar, Cartoons, new toys etc. Still Comic book fans like me would not be feeling too comfortable with the idea. DC comics would be laughing.