A Brief Overview Of The 2009 Negotiation Between Walt Disney And Marvel Comics In Essay.

Companies involved in the negotiation

In this essay a proper description will be provided about the negotiation that was undertaken between Walt Disney and Marvel Comics. The negotiation was conducted in the year 2009 and for a price of 4 billion U.S. dollars Walt Disney acquired all the rights that are associated with Marvel Comics (Brookey and Zhang 2020). The negotiation that was undertaken between both these companies is associated with the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry can be stated as any type of business that is capable of generating proper value to the society by providing people with interesting contents that can be watched by them (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya 2021). Vibrant as well as thrilling experiences are provided to the people with the help of both audio and visual aspects which is highly appreciated all over the world and it generates play sense of joyful ride for the viewers that are associated with the industry. The Entertainment Industry provides a wide genre of audio-visuals contents that are highly appreciated by people or around the world and in the present time it has been identified that with the emergence of OTT platforms it has been possible for the entertainment industry to provide different types of content to the customers that are associated with the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry plays a very crucial role in enlightening people about the current affairs in the industry and on the other hand it also provides people to provoke their imagination and bring specific characters to life that can be highly appreciated by them in the present scenario.

The companies that are associated in this negotiation process includes world Disney and Marvel Comics. The Walt Disney is an American corporation that has been a pioneer of entertainment provider in the 20^th as well as 21^st centuries to families around the world (Park 2018). World Disney was started as a part of Kansas City film advertisement Academy in the year 1920 (Ying 2020). In the year 1927, the company started initiating first fully animated movies which depicted the character of Oswald the lucky rabbit. The mission of the company includes entertaining, inspiring and informing people throughout the global scenario by the help of unparalleled storytelling that reignites the imagination in a person. On the other hand, Marvel Comics is comic book publishing company that has created a lot of notable superheroes in the comics that was published by the company throughout the world. In the present time, Marvel Comics is considered to be one of the two biggest publishing company in the comic industry. A lot of characters have been introduced by the comics that was published by the company and one of the major pioneers of Marvel Comics was Stan Lee (Wu 2021). The different characters that were introduced by the help of Marvel Comics were brought into light by the movies that were conducted on them by Walt Disney. After acquiring the rights of Marvel Comics, the world Disney created a series of superhero movies as well as television content which has highly been appreciated by viewers from all around the globe.

The negotiation process

The deal that was conducted between both the companies was of 4,000,000 U.S. dollars. The negotiation that was conducted between both the companies last date for about 3 months. In the year 2008, the company Walt Disney was not performing effectively and under this context the company was looking forward to implement new strategies by the help of which it will be possible for the company to attract audiences towards the content that was being implemented by it in the world entertainment industry (Chen et al. 2021). With the purchase of Marvel Comics, Walt Disney was capable of attracting the attention of a wide number of customers with the help of the new contents that was acquired by it. The negotiation that was associated with both the parties included agreement, emotion, agenda as well as evaluation of mutual interest. The negotiation that was conducted between both the parties clearly stated the fact that Walt Disney is going to acquire the ownership of Marvel Comics. The most appealing benefit that was associated with Walt Disney in terms of this negotiation process is that the company will be capable of owning 5000 characters that were associated with marvel comics. The wide number of characters that are currently owned by marvel comics is considered to be the superhero business in accordance to the business world. The main strength of the negotiation process includes Disney was weak in the market and it needed a new opportunity to emerge itself in the global scenario of entertainment industry. Marvel was having clearly different agenda and identifying this as an opportunity Walt Disney conducted a merging with Marvel Comics. The advantages that were associated with the marvel comics in the negotiation process is that the company faced bankruptcy in the year 2005 and rebranded as marvel entertainment in the same year and the company end in producing superhero movies with its own characters. Under this context, the negotiation process with Disney provided Marvel Comics with an opportunity to showcase the offering of Marvel Universe on a much bigger platform (Lotfullina and Polyakova 2020).

The main aspect that was identified by Disney from this negotiation process is that it wanted to provide its audience with quality content that is going to be appreciated by them for years. The company identified the opportunity of acquiring a company that is going to provide it with existing audiences and content that is going to be utilised by the company for a longer period of time. Under this context, it can clearly be stated that the different aspects that are asked by Disney clearly effect the negotiation process but looking at the expectation of Marvel Comics it can clearly be stated that the negotiation was a win-win solution for both the companies in the process. Marvel Comics was looking forward to implement a strategy by the help of which it will be capable of generating superhero movies from the characters that are currently associated with its comics and under this context the company was capable of identifying the opportunity of portraying its characters on a bigger platform with a greater number of audiences. The future vision of Marvel Comics was being fulfilled with the negotiation process and it positively helped the company to reach a wide number of audiences.

Benefits brought to both companies

The tactics that were utilised by Disney in the zone of possible agreement was bidding the price of the acquisition on the first hand to marvel since the company was trying to take over marvel. Similarly on the other hand the bidding was much high that was conducted by marvel as compared to that of Disney. It only made sense to the Marvel Comics to acquire a large sum of money rather than have limited amount of money and lose all the characters that are associated with it to Disney. The time during which the deal was happening between Disney and marvel was the time during which mergers and acquisitions were slow paced at the Wall Street. Disney was very much sceptical in terms of not accepting the offers that were being presented by Marvel Comics. In the context of best alternative to negotiable agreement, during the negotiation process marvel had a very good position as compared to that of Disney. Marvel could have continued on itself without having the acquisition with Disney but on the other hand Disney required the merging process in order to compete against its competitors Warner Brothers which have already acquired DC Comics and also to ensure the fact that it increases the market share of the company effectively. Marvel could have continued without Disney but Disney could not have continued without marvel which put Disney at a very negative position during the acquisition process. The negative position of Disney created a lot of pressure on the company and higher price was provided by the company to Marvel Comics at the end of the negotiation process.

The tactics and techniques that were applied by Disney has been fruitful for the company in the longer run. For example, with the new marvel movies that were introduced in the world like Captain America, Avengers and others helped Disney gather a lot of profit in the process and also insured the fact that the price that was paid by Disney while acquiring Marvel Comics is nothing as compared to the current profitability that is being enjoyed by Walt Disney. The negotiation that was conducted by Marvel Comics and the tactics that was utilised by the company has also been beneficial for it. The company not only sold its characters at a much higher price but it was also capable of ensuring the fact that it can operate in the entertainment industry in the future also. With the utilization of the different tactics and techniques that was utilised by marvel the company was capable of generating huge profit in the present scenario of the market and it is also capable of having access to a worldwide opportunity in terms of depicting the different characters that are associated with its universe. Since marvel was at such a better position in the acquisition process so the techniques that was utilised by the company helped it in generating higher revenue in the negotiation process which helped the company to establish itself in the global entertainment industry effectively (Schéré 2018). Looking at the current position of both the companies it can clearly be identified that the tactics and techniques that were utilised by the company during the negotiation process has been highly beneficial for both the companies in terms of generating revenue and also having access to a wide number of audiences in the global entertainment industry.

In conclusion it can be stated that the result that was generated from the negotiation process has been beneficial for both the parties in this scenario. However, looking at the current business that is being generated from the marvel movies it can be stated that Walt Disney has been much more beneficial in the negotiation process as compared to that of Marvel Comics. The final result that was generated from the negotiation process provided Disney with an access to all the different characters that are associated with Marvel Comics and over the years Disney has been capable of producing excellent movies which attracted the attention of a wide number of audiences which clearly states the fact that Disney has been beneficial from the negotiation process. The same goes for Marvel Comics as the company not only gained a huge amount of money but also continued to work on the global entertainment system.  

Reference List

Agnihotri, A. and Bhattacharya, S., 2021. Dynamics of the Disney–Fox Merger. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.

Brookey, R.A. and Zhang, N., 2020. The not-so Fantastic Four franchise: A critical history of the comic, the films, and the Disney/Fox merger. In Comics and Videogames (pp. 149-163). Routledge.

Chen, N., Xuantong, L., Ruitao, L. and Guanzhong, S., 2021. Business acquisition analysis: A case study of Disney-Fox deal. Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, 182, pp.231-235.

Lotfullina, D.R. and Polyakova, O.V., 2020. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: DON'T LOSE THE LOTTERY.

Park, S.H., 2018. Characteristics of research The Transmedia Storytelling in the Disney Marvel. Cartoon and Animation Studies, pp.159-179.

Schéré, E., 2018. The Trouble with Mergers Is. UCLA Ent. L. Rev., 25, p.133.

Wu, T., 2021, October. Superhero Meets Princess: New Commercial Opportunities Obtained by Walt Disney’s Acquisition of Marvel. In 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021) (pp. 629-633). Atlantis Press.

Ying, Y., 2020. The impact of mergers & acquisitions on acquiring company’s performance: a case study of Disney (Doctoral dissertation).