Walt Disney acquires Marvel

[fpb]

I don't know whether to be happy or not. On the one hand, given Disney's current habits, this will do nothing to slow down Marvel's descent into unmitigated sleaze. (Find out how many Marvel characters are now said to have incestuous relationships, you'll be surprised.) On the other hand, it probably represents the final end to the old and bad tradition of Marvel being the cash cow for financial adventurers using it for their own purposes. (Two words: Ron Perelman. I think that using the company you are buying as collateral to have the money to buy it, and thus load it with debt the moment you bought it, ought to pass from the number of sharp financial practices into the register of criminal frauds.) Whatever else may be said about Disney, it is at least an entertainment company, and to that extent its goals are the same as Marvel.

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. My idea of good business is one where all the parties to a deal have a final advantage. In this case, the bank and Perelman had the advantage, and Marvel suffered for years. In fact, it may well be that the great comics revival of the eighties was muffled because Marvel was forced by circumstances to go all out for immediate profit, instead of working out a long-term strategy to build up the market; although in general the American comics industry has NEVER had management capable of thinking strategically. In a sense, it and Perelman deserved each other.