“Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters.”
For the modest sum of around $4 million.
“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 press release here.
“Long-term growth and value creation”?
I take that as a threat. We’ve already seen the Mickey Mouse Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. Now we could see a battle for even longer protection for this vast universe of comic-book characters, dragging every other kind of creative expression with them.
Update:
“Cartoonist’s Heirs Seek to Reclaim Rights”
Heirs to the comic-book artist Jack Kirby, who has been credited as the co-creator of characters and stories behind Marvel mainstays like the “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four,” among many others, last week sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel, Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and others who have been making films and other forms of entertainment based on the characters…
Marvel shareholders must still approve the sale of the company to Disney, which is already battling criticism from some Wall Street analysts that Marvel comes with too messy an array of rights agreements. ..
September 1st, 2009 12:45
$4 million really would be a modest sum. Even at $4 billion its only twice as much as the $2 billion Skype is costing Marc Andreessen. And you’d think eBay would be better at selling off their own stuff – they paid $2.6 billion for it a few years back.