A Super Powered Deal Or A Mickey Mouse Operation?

Disney announced today that it is going to acquire Marvel Comics for $4 billion.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters. Many of them, including favorites such as the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, were co-created by the comic book legend Stan Lee.

Disney said Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash, plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own. That values each Marvel share at $50 based on Friday's closing stock prices.

Marvel shares jumped $10.09, or 26 percent, to $48.74 in trading before the market opened. Disney shares fell 70 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $26.14.

Disney said the boards of both companies have approved the transaction, but it will require an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

Needless to say, Marvel Comics stock is way up this morning, but I'm really not sure how I feel about Snow White and the Seven X-Men or Magneto's New Groove. On one hand, Pixar has really gotten complete creative freedom as a company and it has benefited Disney well. On the other hand, Disney hasn't been too kind to ABC or ESPN and has basically treated ABC as its corporate PR arm.

We'll see how Marvel is treated. Hopefully this means some serious firepower behind Marvel's many movie projects. If Marvel is treated as well as Pixar, that would be wonderful. If not however it could be a disaster.