Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4B

This morning, worldwide leader in family entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, agreed (pending approval) to acquire Marvel Entertainment and its portfolio of of over 5000 characters!

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. The transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.

"Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Iger said.

"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's Chief Executive Officer. "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."

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney's global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel's properties.

Originally posted at Market Watch

Disney Deal Might Affect Hasbro

Hasbro Venture May Be Hurt by Disney Deal

Toymaker Hasbro Inc.'s joint venture with Discovery Communications to create a TV network could be hurt by Disney's decision to acquire Marvel Entertainment Inc., an analyst said Monday.

The Walt Disney Co. said Monday it will acquire the entertainment company, which owns comic book characters such as Iron Man and Spider-Man, for $4 billion in cash and stock.

Wells Fargo analyst Tim Conder said in a note to investors that Hasbro recently extended its contract with Marvel until 2017.

"We do not view this transaction as having any material negative implications from this perspective," he wrote. Still, the decision might affect Hasbro and Discovery's TV network joint venture, since it makes it less likely the network will offer shows centered around Marvel characters.

Now, "it is highly likely that Disney will want to retain Marvel-related programming content for its own channels of distribution," Conder noted.

The $100,000 Dust Size Hulk

His paintbrush, a hair plucked from a dead housefly. His sculptures, invisible to the naked eye. This is the world-reknowned art of self taught British sculptor Willard Wigan. Creating miniature masterpieces that fit inside a needle’s eye or rest on the the head of a pin, the work is no small feat and the price tag of his artistry fetch dollars amounting in the hundred thousands.Peering through a microscope at 800 times magnification, he molds dust fibers and slivers of plastic into recognizable images.

Whether its sculpting animated characters like the Incredible Hulk and The Simpsons or pop culture icons like Michael Jackson and Buzz Aldrin, these tiny micro-sculptures go for up to $140,000 a piece according to Wigan’s latest catalog. Collectors of his unique craft, including the likes of Prince Charles, Elton John and Mike Tyson receive a microscope along with each sculpture so they can view the artwork they’ve purchased. Check out some of his works below.

Hulk in a needle eye

Simpsons on a pin head

To commemorate the Moon landing

The artist poses with Buzz Aldrin

The Bike You Can Eat!!

Passing by a candy store last week on vacation in Old Quebec City, Canada, i saw this awesome tri-cycle made of candy. Eat and ride at the same time, how could you resist!!

Clone Wars 2: Rise of the Bounty Hunters

Check out the link below for a teaser video of the upcoming Clone Wars Season 2: Rise of the Bounty Hunters!

TEASER TRAILER

Tim Burton Exhibit Coming to MOMA

November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010
Museum Of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019-5497
(212) 708-9400

Tim Burton. Untitled (The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories).
1982–84. Pen and ink, marker, and colored pencil on paper
10 x 9" (25.4 x 22.9 cm). Private collection.

This major career retrospective on Tim Burton (American, b. 1958), consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton's career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawing through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.

Burton's films include Vincent (1982), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice, Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (as creator and producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd (2007); writing and Web projects include The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories (1997) and Stainboy (2000).