DISNEY - NO MARVEL HERE NO MOVIES, NO MONEY

NO MARVEL HERE NO MOVIES, NO MONEY

Marvel shareholders were no doubt bracing for lousy news Tuesday when the superhero comics company issued its third-quarter results. After all,they realized that the company had not released a movie during the entire year. As it turned out, the company did indeed report a profits plunge of 60 percent on a 42-percent drop in revenue. It earned just $20 million on about $106 million in total sales. ( Spider-Man 3 earned $148 million on its opening weekend.) Shareholder anticipation of the rotten results was apparently already reflected in the stock's price. (And, after all, Disney is acquiring the company in a cash and stock deal worth about $4 billion, keeping its current stock price perhaps artificially high.) In fact, Marvel stock climbed higher on Tuesday and higher still today (Wednesday), trading near its 52-week high of $51.86.

04/11/2009