{"id":29238,"date":"2021-03-14T10:02:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T14:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=29238"},"modified":"2021-03-22T00:28:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T04:28:30","slug":"disney-marvel-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/disney-marvel-acquisition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disney Marvel Acquisition: The Ultimate Team-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why did Disney buy Marvel? How did the Disney Marvel acquisition affect each company? Was it a good deal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the successful purchase of Pixar, Disney set its sights on a new goal: a Disney Marvel acquisition. Many were concerned that this deal would harm both companies. Marvel was too edgy for Disney and Disney would water down Marvel. But Disney CEO Bob Iger<\/a> had faith it would work out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to learn more about the Disney Marvel acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Disney Marvel Acquisition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Acquiring Pixar had settled the existential problem of Disney Animation. Emboldened by the ensuing success of Pixar, Disney continued studying other companies that could bring high-quality content into the Disney universe<\/strong>. Two companies were at the top of their list\u2014Marvel and Lucasfilm (keeper of Star Wars<\/em>). Both produced legendary characters and stories that Disney could extend further in film and television; in turn, this would fuel Disney\u2019s consumer products and theme parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These weren\u2019t new ideas. The possibility of acquiring these brands had been on previous Disney CEO Michael Eisner\u2019s radar as well, but both Disney and Eisner were too conservative to pull the trigger for a few reasons. For one, Disney was still driven by a sense of purity and was wary of adding outside brands and characters, especially those as edgy as Marvel\u2019s superheroes. For another, Eisner had grown weary of governing his own acquisitions, including the entertainment studio Miramax\u2014he had constant battles with the Weinstein brothers and the board over finances and creative control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, though, Disney CEO Bob Iger was open-minded and willing to take risks. Even though Disney buying Pixar<\/a> had worked out fantastically, the media industry was still shifting rapidly. Disney needed to extend its lead and built its momentum, and that meant expanding the storytelling they produced.<\/strong> So they pursued more company-defining acquisitions in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a number of reasons (including the suspicion that Lucas would be unwilling to sell Star Wars<\/em>), Marvel was Disney\u2019s top target. Around 2008, three years after the acquisition of Pixar, they started approaching Marvel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like Pixar, Marvel had its own unique complications. First, its intellectual property was scattered. Over the years, Marvel had scattered movie rights to a bevy of other companies. Columbia Pictures and Sony owned Spider-Man<\/em>; Universal owned The Incredible Hulk<\/em>; Fox owned X-Men<\/em>. This meant Disney couldn\u2019t access all Marvel characters, and the branding could become scattered and confusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, Marvel\u2019s CEO and chairman, Ike Perlmutter, was an unknown entity. He was ex-Israeli military, intensely secretive, and hard to reach. What they knew about his history was that Ike was a shrewd businessman\u2014he had a toy company that had been acquired by Marvel in 1993, and when Marvel filed for bankruptcy in 1997, he acquired control of Marvel. Everything else was a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making Overtures<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In these circumstances, Disney started approaching Perlmutter however they could. It wasn\u2019t easy, since Ike had no direct lines of contact. Disney reached out for six months with no response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate, they tried to find someone Ike would trust. They found a contact: a former Disney exec who had joined Marvel to develop their movies. Iger asked the contact if he could meet with Ike. The contact made no promises but since he\u2019d do what he could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months passed with no news. Finally, in June 2009, they got a call to schedule a meeting with Ike at Marvel\u2019s offices in Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with Pixar and Steve Jobs<\/a>, Iger decided to visit by himself. He felt it was important to approach authentically and not with a corporate army. He and Perlmutter opened the meeting casually, by discussing their backgrounds and their businesses. When Ike asked about Pixar, Iger saw an opening\u2014he shared how respectfully they\u2019d integrated Pixar into Disney, and he explained that Disney was interested in doing the same with the Disney Marvel acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They continued the discussion over two dinners, first by themselves and the second with their wives. In these conversations, Iger got a sense of who Ike was and what was important to him. He\u2019d immigrated to the United States with nothing, built up a fortune through hard work and intelligence. Now, with the Disney Marvel acquisition he would earn a fortune, but it was important that the buyer not mess up what they\u2019d accomplished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney Close the Acquisition<\/strong> of Marvel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over the coming weeks, the conversation deepened. On one front, Disney constructed financial models to think about the price they could pay. They planned out movie releases and box-office estimates and thought about the value gained in the theme parks and consumer products businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On another front, Disney made sure they could integrate Marvel successfully. They studied how Marvel fans would react to the Disney Marvel acquisition and found the reaction would be fine, as long as Disney treated the brand respectfully and independently. Iger also assured Marvel staff the same way he\u2019d assured Pixar staff\u2014Marvel had created something very special, and it\u2019d be foolish and financially ruinous for Disney to destroy that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iger even asked Steve Jobs to call Ike and vouch for Disney and Iger. Jobs told Ike that the Pixar sale had exceeded even his lofty expectations, and that Iger held true to his word and treated the company, brand, and people right. Ike was flattered to be called by Jobs, and this helped swing him over the fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 31, 2009, just a few months after Iger\u2019s first meeting with Perlmutter, Disney announced they were buying Marvel for $4 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unprecedented Success<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The deal wasn\u2019t immediately seen as a great decision.<\/strong> Observers thought both brands would be ruined by the Disney Marvel acquisition\u2014Marvel would be watered down, and Disney\u2019s clean image would be dirtied. Even Iger\u2019s colleagues, fellow CEOs, questioned his judgment, wondering why comic book characters would be worth $4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iger, though, knew that Marvel had over seven thousand characters, and there were plenty of heroic stories to tell. Notably, Marvel Studios, led by Kevin Feige, had a master plan\u2014the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which would bring historic characters like Iron Man and Thor to life over a decade of intersecting plotlines. These early films were instant successes, and Disney quickly realized that they had bought Marvel for a bargain. Across over twenty Marvel films, the average<\/em> gross box-office for each film would cross $1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Difficult Personnel Decisions<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Executing the plan correctly wasn\u2019t without its frictions, though. Iger remembers two major personnel decisions that were difficult:<\/p>\n\n\n\n