Mark; X-Men & Spiderman movies coming: MVL (Marvel) has deals w/KIDE, SONY & others;
chart shows strong suport @ $4.81: bigcharts.com
buy rec:
Monday May 8, 9:45 am Eastern Time
Individual Investor
Marvel Creates Licensing Joint Venture With Sony
Talk about licensing momentum.
Marvel Enterprises (NYSE: MVL - news) announced a joint licensing venture with Sony Pictures Consumer Products (NYSE: SNE - news) on Wednesday, one of many expected to follow. Deemed Spider-Man Merchandising L.P., the venture will oversee the licensing and merchandising campaign for the movie of Marvel's famed web-slinger, slated for fall 2001.
Despite this venture making a whole lot of ``Spidey sense,'' shares of Marvel were virtually unchanged last week.
On Wednesday, both Marvel and Sony Pictures held a kick-off presentation in California, an event including more than 400 potential licensees, agents, promotional partners and retailers. The two companies will share the revenues and have divided responsibilities by category; Marvel manages among other things, master toys, apparel, accessories, and collectibles, while Sony manages back-to-school, food and beverage, party and sporting goods, ancillary toys and video games.
The joint venture came on the heels of two other key licensing announcements. On April 20, Marvel entered into a multi-year international licensing agreement with Leisure Concepts, a subsidiary of 4Kids Entertainment (NASDAQ: KIDE - news) , to develop licensing opportunities for several of Marvel's superhero franchises and to awaken Marvel's international presence. Leisure Concepts is best known for its success with Pokemon.
Subsequently, Marvel and 20th Century Fox announced a partnership with Toysrus.com (NYSE: TOY - news) to launch an official online store for X-Men licensed products, including collectible action figures from Marvel's Toy Biz division. What's more, the site will offer movie trailers (Fox releases the movie on July 14), and exclusive content including character biographies and cyber comics.
Now with the Marvel-Sony joint venture, Marvel's licensing momentum should really build over the next several months. Marvel Chief Executive Peter Cuneo told individualinvestor.com that he expects Spiderman's licensing revenue to be triple that of X-Men (expected to be as much as $10 million) and the majority will be reaped this year.
In addition, Cuneo thinks the X-Men movie could generate as much as $75 million in related toy sales. And Marvel is expected to generate revenues from a separate set of licensing deals relating to its upcoming X-Men animated television show on the Warner Brothers Kids Network.
But investors who have pinned their hopes of a higher share price solely on the X-Men movie buzz are missing the bigger picture. Marvel has a new look. It's not just about comic books anymore. Management, through a focus on turning Marvel's characters into feature films, is working to develop some real synergies among all the company's businesses including licensing, toys, publishing, and most recently, the Internet.
By the time that the rest of the Street realizes the value to be unlocked in Marvel's shares, we expect they will be trading much higher. With a Spiderman movie on the horizon for 2001 and several related licensing deals expected for it this year, there are just too many catalysts to ignore.
Marvel is expected to report its first quarter results on May 10 and will hold a conference call at 10 o'clock that morning.
We continue to rate Marvel Enterprises a Buy.
Updated on May 8, 2000 with MVL at $5.
Recommended on December 11, 1999 at $6.69.
more news:
Wednesday May 3, 3:53 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Sony Pictures Consumer Products and Marvel Enterprises Announce New Joint Venture - Spider-Man Merchandising L.P.
Long-Awaited Spider-Man Movie Franchise Casts its Web Around Potential Licensees at Today's Invitation-Only Summit at UCLA
CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2000-- Sony Pictures Consumer Products (SPCP) and Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:MVL - news) have joined forces to create a new partnership - Spider-Man Merchandising L.P. - to oversee the expansive licensing and merchandising campaign surrounding the highly anticipated Spider-Man; The Movie slated for Fall 2001 and based on the Marvel Comics popular superhero. Under the agreement, SPCP and Marvel will equally share sales responsibilities, divided by category. The new collaboration is being announced today by Peter Dang, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Consumer Products for SPCP and Peter Cuneo, President and CEO of Marvel Enterprises, during an exclusive Spider-Man; The Movie kick-off presentation on the UCLA Campus.
``The formation of this new company is necessary to maximize the potential of the built-in awareness of Spider-Man,'' said Dang. ``By joining forces with Marvel, we can maximize on major licensing opportunities to support the movie, while leveraging the enormous worldwide popularity that has already been built. In essence, we are matching our strengths with Marvel's to ensure that the Spider-Man motion picture franchise generates the attention and excitement it deserves.''
Cuneo added, ``This strategic and exclusive partnership allows us to explore a full range of categories for one of the world's most recognized characters. SPCP is a company that understands the unlimited potential in Spider-Man, and we are looking forward to maximizing the licensing, merchandising and branding opportunities afforded by the feature-film and this partnership.''
Led by hosts Dang and Cuneo, the Spider-Man; The Movie event will include more than 400 potential licensees, agents, promotional partners and retailers. Dang and Cuneo will provide detailed information on the current and projected scope of activities that will take place under the Spider-Man Merchandising L.P. banner. Marvel and SPCP will share revenues from the joint venture and have divided responsibility for pursuing each licensing category. Marvel will manage master toys, apparel, accessories, collectibles, gift and novelty, and publishing (shared). SPCP will handle back-to-school, food and beverage, health and beauty, home furnishings, domestics, housewares, party goods, stationery, sporting goods, publishing (shared), ancillary toys and video games.
Spider-Man; The Movie, a Columbia Pictures film, is based on the adventures of Peter Parker, a smart yet reserved high school student who becomes The Amazing Spider-Man when bitten by a radioactive spider. Spider-Man; The Movie will be directed by Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan, The Gift, For Love of the Game).
Sony Pictures Consumer Products (NYSE:SNE - news), based in Los Angeles, handles the merchandising and branding efforts for some of the most recognized properties in film and television. SPCP is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), whose global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home video acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities, development of new entertainment technologies and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries.
Marvel Enterprises, Inc. is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies with operations in five divisions: licensing, toys -- via its Toy Biz division, comic book and trade publishing, entertainment and the Internet. Through the ownership of over 4,700 proprietary characters, Marvel licenses its characters in a wide range of consumer products, services and media such as feature films, television, the Internet, apparel, video games, collectibles, snack foods and promotions. Marvel's characters and plot lines are created and developed through the comic book publishing division, which maintains a leadership position in the U.S. and abroad. For additional company information visit Marvel's corporate Web site at marvel.com.
Founded on the expertise of two companies, Sony Pictures Consumer Products and Marvel Enterprises, Spider-Man Merchandising L.P. was created to maximize the full potential of the Spider-Man; The Movie franchise.
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