With financial news focused today on the blockbuster acquisition by Disney of Marvel Comics for $4 billion, Bloomberg News came out on top with a well-reported story focused on where the deal would matter: Hollywood. Andy Fixmer and Sarah Rabil's story covered the valuable distribution rights and intellectual property Marvel delivers to Disney but also covered the strategic value in terms of fighting Viamcom for the attention of boys - a demographic not reached by the Jonas Brothers or Hannah Montana.
During the late 1990s M&A boom, when billion dollar deals were announced weekly, M&A lawyers would clear their calendars for media calls every Monday, as the deals tended to be announced after weekend of furious negotiation and anyone who worked for a reputable firm and had done an analogous deal would have the opportunity to be third party comment.
Bloomberg's story included such opportunistic sources another level removed, such as editors of a theme-park trade magazine and a Los Angeles talent agent.
Disney's PR people should get credit for positioning a deal to pay $4 billion for a company that was so recently in bankruptcy as a major win. They were also able to craft the narrative that this acquisition is like their absorption of Pixar, which reinvigorated the company's creative energy, rather than the money it wasted acquiring the Muppets in the previous decade, which seems to have gone unmentioned in all of the major news coverage.
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