Angry Web

Huge news here – Disney has acquired Marvel Entertainment for a whopping $4 billion!  The agreement not only gives the studio the rights to over Marvel’s 5,000+ characters, but control over its licensing, publishing, and film production capabilities.  This will be one of the largest acquisitions in Disney’s history following its 2006 acquisition of Pixar for $7.4 billion.

Well, we can surely say that this will definitely bring a massive shockwave to the entertainment industry in the coming years ahead.  While it’s been announced that the deals for movies on characters from Marvel (Spiderman, X-Men, Iron Man, etc.) will stay in place under the terms set by Marvel, Disney does intend to self-distribute down the line.

Check out the press release:

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

“This transaction combines Marvel’s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney’s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories,” said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. “Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney.”

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Iger said.

“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties.

The Boards of Directors of Disney and Marvel have each approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, effectiveness of a registration statement with respect to Disney shares issued in the transaction and other customary closing conditions. The agreement will require the approval of Marvel shareholders. Marvel was advised on the transaction by BofA Merrill Lynch.

Well, I guess it’s official now. “Batman: Arkham Asylum” has made it in the Guinness World Record books for “Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever”. Check out the press release:

Today the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham Asylum game has been awarded a Guinness World Record for the ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever’.

Batman: Arkham Asylum has been given top scores across the board from National newspapers and specialist game reviewers. The game has broken the Guinness World Record in this category by achieving the highest average score of 91.67 from reviews around the world.*

Developed by Rocksteady Studios and based on DC Comics’ Batman license, Batman: Arkham Asylum offers players diverse gameplay that pushes the envelope for action, adventure and superhero games and exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure taking them to the depths of Arkham Asylum.

Gaz Deaves from Guinness World Records states, “We are so pleased to be awarding Batman: Arkham Asylum a Guinness World Record. It is a fantastic new game and due to the reaction of gaming experts we believe it has a well deserved place in the Guinness World Records book.”

A well-deserved award without question.  If you still have not played this game yet, please stop reading this and get it!  Best.  Batman.  Game.  Ever.

“Batman: Arkham Asylum” is currently available on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Ain’t it Cool has posted spy pics that give us a first look at the Dawn Treader, being the ship featured in the third installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” series.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is scheduled for a December 10th, 2010 release date.

Here is an explosion of assets from the upcoming “Final Fantasy XIV”, the second online “Final Fantasy” game in the series. Included is every media asset that was made available and now you can check it out for yourself. These pictures include shots of scenery, races, weapons and even armor. Enjoy kupo!

I can’t say I think this movie will be great by any means but judging by the posters and the trailers, this will definitely be on the stunning end of the disaster movie spectrum. These posters portray exactly how much worldwide destruction we can expect to see in “2012″. I personally believe this movie should have been released in 2013…

Tuesday, August 25th is almost here and you know what that means, gamers.  ”Batman: Arkham Asylum” will officially launch at midnight tonight!  Chances are, many of you have already preordered it and are planning to pick it up asap.  If you preordered it at Gamestop, you might even be lining up at your local store in a few hours!

We know that Spike TV will be covering the midnight launch beginning at 12:00 AM tonight, so supposedly this should be a fairly popular event.

So, come Tuesday, having finally gotten your hands on what’s already been considered the greatest Batman video game of all time, tell us your thoughts and impressions.  If you went to the midnight launch, how was it?

This comic, entitled “Case of the Mondays”, examines how much coffee is so awesome!