Disney to purchase Marvel Entertainment

Walt Disney Co. has announced plans to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction valued at about $4 billion. Once the deal is complete, Disney will own all of Marvel and the company's more than 5,000 characters.

"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 Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of Walt Disney Co.

Ike Perlmutter will oversee Marvel properties and will work with Disney's corporate branch to integrate Marvel's properties under the Disney umbrella.

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

What this means for Islands of Adventure--which features an entire area based on the Marvel Universe and has two signature rides named after Marvel characters--is unkown at this time. At a guess, Marvel's contract with Universal will be honored until the terms expire. After this, we may see the re-theming of this area unless Universal and Disney can come to some agreement.