Please excuse me if this has already been posted, but here is an email that Bob Iger sent out to Cast Members today. My CM friend forwarded it to me.
Dear Fellow Cast Members:
I’m pleased to tell you we’ve agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment and its treasure trove of over 5000 characters in a transaction we hope to complete by the end of the year.
I’m incredibly excited by the acquisition. Not only will we combine the great characters and storylines of Marvel with those of Disney, but we will also bring together two groups of dedicated and very talented people.
Disney’s success has been built on the great storytelling skills, the technical artistry and the creative vision of its Cast Members and employees. At Marvel, Ike Perlmutter and his team have created real value by combining similar creative skills with a strong strategy and a disciplined and smart way of doing business. They’ve done a great job in extending and increasing the popularity of such Marvel characters as Iron Man, X-Men and Spider Man.
Like our own characters and stories, Marvel’s break through gender, age, cultural and geographical boundaries and have broad appeal on a variety of media platforms. These attributes make the Marvel brand, characters and stories particularly valuable in a world of increasing consumer choice.
Marvel’s business meshes perfectly with ours and what we’ve all been doing to maximize the value of Disney’s creative properties across our businesses, media platforms and geographical markets.
Our acquisition of Pixar three years ago exemplified our focus on creating high-quality, technologically innovative entertainment that appeals to audiences all over the world. The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance that strategy, to build a business that’s stronger than the sum of its parts and to drive Disney’s long-term growth.
We look forward to welcoming the Marvel team to the Disney family and to the exciting potential this combination offers.
For more details on the transaction, please read the press release which can be found by clicking here.
Best wishes,
Bob