Wow. I am away from the computer and this happens. Definitely unexpected, but Iger has always looked to buy storytellers and content. As I remember him saying in some interview a time ago, too many companies buy non-character, non-story companies that have no value beyond past performance. He would rather buy a library of characters that can be sold forever across all the channels and get the people who tell the story (Pixar/Lasseter).
I think this is an amazing and bold move. I know our focus is theme parks, but I believe Iger sees the true payback coming from consumer products and the other channels. Just think...Hannah Montana pulls in over $1 billion in sales. This is possible because Disney has it on the TV, on DVDs, on every known consumer product, in the park, on live shows, etc. I mean, Cars brought in over $6 billion in sales and the movie was not even the best grossing Pixar movie. They just have the platform and the engine to make this a HUGE win. And like others have said, it fills their biggest void, the tween and teenage boy segment.
By the way, Marvel also pulled in over $260 million in profit last year, so that does not hurt. Add in the Disney sales channels and infrastructure over time...even more.
Funny note...Disney just bought Marvel, a company with probably the most famous and recognizable characters in the world outside of Disney ones, for substantially less than Eisner spent on Fox Family. Now that is funny...and sad.
