Investing in Marvel's Future.

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AU Press ReleasesMarvel Executive, Trustee Chairman slated to speak on campus
10/10/07
Alfred University alumnus and chairman of the AU Board of Trustees, Peter Cuneo ’67, who is also vice chairman/director of Marvel Enterprises, Inc., New York City, is set to speak on campus, Thursday, Oct, 18, 2007, from 5-6 p.m., in Powell Campus Center’s Nevins Theatre. This lecture will be open to the public free of charge.

Cuneo’s topic is “The Turnaround of the Marvel Brand.” He will share the story and strategic decision of the team that helped bring Marvel Enterprises from bankruptcy to the global brand powerhouse it is today.

After serving as chief executive officer (CEO) at Marvel from 1999-2002, Cuneo continued as a part-time special adviser to the next CEO through December 2004.

Cuneo is also senior adviser to Plainfield Asset Management LLC, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT that specializes in special and distressed situations. He is also a director of Iconix Brands, Inc.

Harvard Business School has called Cuneo “Marvel’s Superhero CEO.” He has also been dubbed the “Turnaround Man” after successful turnarounds at Marvel, Clairol, Black & Decker, and Remington.

Marvel’s most popular characters and groups include Spiderman, the X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, and Daredevil. Marvel’s upcoming projects include movies featuring Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and The Spectacular Spiderman.

Cool.

 

[Donald Thomas]

Cool.

Aloha,
'Very cool indeed. While I am first and foremsot a Spidey comic book collector, I am also an adult who understands basic business procedure. I sometimes shake my head at some of the comments made about Marvel or Joe Q or any of the other people involved in Marvel Comics.They either have never worked at a job requiring a yearly jpr or they just like to see their complaints in print. Marvel Comics is NOT the old Bullpen of the 1960s.That Cuneo was able to bring Marvel back from the pits to the powerhouse it is, proves that the basic direction of Marvel was correct. Now if we could get some guys who are actually comic book fans and also business savvy.HEAVEN!
Spidey rules

 

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Avi Arad is primarily responsible (along w/Ike Perlumetter) for not only saving and turning around Marvel...but for putting the entire comic book genre back on the map to stay.

 

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Marvel Entertainment Inc. Earnings Conference Call (Q3 2007)
Scheduled to start Mon, Nov 5, 2007, 9:00 am Eastern

Check back at the scheduled start time for
the audio link to appear in this spot. Add This Event To Your Yahoo! Calendar
After the event has finished, the audio will be available
from this page until Thu, Nov 6, 2008

 

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http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071105/20071105005748.html?.v=1

Marvel destroys earnings expecations and stock is surging!

 

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Conference Call is finally up and running updates to come below if any:

Budget range of Iron Man & Hulk between 100-160 million. They won't tighten the range on this just yet.

Writer's strike will have no impact on 08 activity, and too premature to see if it'll impact 09 films.

Hulk has 2 weeks left of prinicipal photography.

Iron Man in post production and they're working on visual effects, mixing, editing, & music and will continue working until 5 weeks prior to release date.

That's it.

Nothing on Thor, Punisher: Warzone, or anything else.

 

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Marvel earnings tripled this time around sending the stock up just under 20% yesterday! We're up almost another buck today!!!

 

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A must read:

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/11/07/marvel-is-a-screaming-buy.aspx

Marvel Is a Screaming Buy

By Tim Beyers November 7, 2007


OK, I'll say it if no one else will. Even with Monday's 18% run, arising from a blockbuster third-quarter earnings report, Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) is a screaming buy. Period.

(See Chart at Link above)

Yeah, I know, $132 million is less than $194 million. But who cares? Marvel had managed just $25.3 million in trailing adjusted cash from operations through its first quarter.
In other words, Marvel is raking in moola like Venom after a string of Lower Manhattan bank robberies. And not a single penny of that cash flow is from self-produced movies.
Oh, Mickey, you're so fine -- but so is Spidey
What this means is that Marvel has a massive licensing business that should continue to thrive, even as Marvel Studios cranks out Iron Man next May, followed by The Incredible Hulk in June.
How massive is it? Ask the editors at LICENSE magazine. According to this article (downloads a PDF file), Marvel is the world's sixth-most valuable licensing brand, accounting for an estimated $4.8 billion in retail sales. Disney (NYSE: DIS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), and Phillips-Van Heusen are among the handful of brands to account for more.
No one should be surprised, then, that hundreds of companies are leaning on Spidey to earn them more. Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX) is putting Marvel characters on its signature clogs, for example. And the Al Ahli Group is spending $1 billion to welcome Captain America to Dubai.
But, in Q3, it was Spidey who dazzled investors. Licensing revenue from Marvel's Spider-Man joint venture with Sony (NYSE: SNE) nearly touched $100 million through the first nine months of the year, up from $3.5 million during the same period in 2006.
Margins also improved by double digits across the board, thanks in part to another lucrative licensing deal -- this one with Hasbro (NYSE: HAS), which has committed to spending more than $200 million to make toys out of Marvel characters.
Take another look at those numbers
Surely, bears will point out that even with its rich licensing business, Marvel faces a huge hurdle with self-produced films. They're not entirely wrong. The comic-book king has already borrowed more than $200 million to produce Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.
If neither film makes money, Marvel could lose the movie rights to both characters and eight others. But I just don't see that happening. I've done the math.
According to this presentation (downloads a big PDF file), a self-produced Marvel film that costs $130 million to make and that earns $150 million at the domestic box office would produce $62 million in operating profit.
If that's true, then perceived busts Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, produced by News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) 20th Century Fox, and The Hulk, produced by Universal, would have earned more than $50 million each for Marvel as self-produced films.
My point? Maybe Marvel's movie business isn't as risky as the Street thinks.
And if it is? So what? Marvel today trades for roughly 16.8 times is adjusted cash from operations, or about in line with historic norms. What that means is investors buying today are getting the new Marvel Studios business for zero. Nada. Zilch.
You and I both know that's a screaming bargain. Will you have the guts to take Mr. Market up on it?

 

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Marvel signs w/Segal for Canada expansion.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/...d=news_view&newsId=20071119005365&newsLang=en

 

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So I guess I can't buy one share for a grand no more huh? Crap! I knew I should have done that in the late 90s!

 

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One share is only $28.00

 

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Really? Where can I buy them from? I want to get like 10 shares if possible. PLEASE! IM me some info.

 

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10 shares? Just open an account at TD Waterhouse or E-Trade send them the money via cashiers check or wire and then buy it.

 

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http://www.developmag.com/news/28875/Marvel-to-step-up-game-development-focus

This would be a good move and it's clearly the next step in the evoloution of Marvel. Sooner or later Marvel is gonna merge with some other company anyways.

Marvel to increase game development presence?
Michael French Today, 3:55pm
SPECIAL REPORT: Sources tell Develop that comic book giant is considering direct relationships with game studios for new titles
Marvel Entertainment is exploring ways it can get closer with game developers according to several senior game development execs.
Currently, the firm enjoys a number of lucrative partnerships with major publishers such as Activision, EA and Sega for game adaptations and spin-offs of upcoming Marvel character-based movies. It has a long-term deal for Spider-Man in place with Activision and earlier this year licensed a number of characters - including Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and Thor - to Sega.
However, multiple independent sources have reported to Develop that the company has privately expressed desire to some partners that it wishes to get much more involved in the games development process.
Although a major force in terms of licensing its properties to third-parties, Marvel has prior precedent in 'seizing its destiny' to control how owned material is transferred to other mediums; it opened the Marvel Studios film division in 2004 to directly manage the writing and production of films based on its characters, following the mixed fortunes of its properties when handled by Hollywood studios. Its first films, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, appear next year accompanied by Sega's tie-ins.
Marvel certainly has the talent in-house to start replicating its Marvel Studios strategy in games development when it possibly looking at projects for the following year; a few months ago it appointed former journalist turned Sega and LucasArts exec Justin Lambros as VP of interactive at Marvel Studios and executive producer in forthcoming Marvel-based video games.
Plus, a recent job posting at Monster.com says the company is seeking a CFO-like figure with experience in "the management of content development and/or interactive publishing business" and "interactive or online casual gaming planning and deployment" to help further define Marvel's interactive strategy.

Two titles based on Marvel properties have recently hit development troubles, with reports suggesting the Microsoft-published MMO Marvel Universe has been cancelled, while EA Chicago recently closed as production on a new Marvel fighting title began. It's not clear if these developments have played any part in Marvel's intentions for games development - although Develop has been told by one source that the firm had been privately discussing its possible closer ties with studios prior to the reports which put the two above projects in doubt.
While it is not yet clear if Marvel is simply looking to have a much closer level of involvement in upcoming games using its characters (beyond its status as approval licensee) or is considering opening up its own game studio, a la Marvel Studios' film interests - or even looking at a possible move to publishing - the company is likely keeping a close eye on big media contemporaries such as Warner Bros and Fox.
Warner recently formalised a strong push into the games industry, setting up European operations for its publishing division, a new production unit called WB Games, and acquiring UK studio Traveller's Tales, which is working on a Lego game based around the Batman comic character.
Senior industry executives, meanwhile, have previously stated to Develop and its sister magazine MCV that Fox Interactive is set for a comeback.
The allure of such moves is obvious. In taking a much more controlling stake in the treatment of their properties, the likes of Warner are able to guarantee better quality and more profitable products, also removing the cost that licensing to third-parties incurs.
At the same time, a closer relationship with games studios could provide access to new IP and ideas - although, with 5,000 characters in its stable already, Marvel won't have any shortage of characters or material to exploit as it stands.
All of this, however, still remains in the realm of industry whispers - the firm has not made an official announcement about increasing its involvement in game development and declined to comment when contacted by Develop.

 

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http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/12/31/best-stock-for-2008-marvel.aspx

Best Stock for 2008: Marvel

By Anders Bylund (TMF Zahrim) December 31, 2007
5 Recommendations

Ring in the new year with more stocks for 2008.
I've made my adoration perfectly clear for Marvel's (NYSE: MVL) stock. Not to put too fine a point on the argument, I think this might be the single best investment you could make for 2008.
As you may know, the company has decided to go it alone in the movie industry and finance new superhero films through an innovative loan structure. First up will be Iron Man and another, presumably less artsy, look at The Incredible Hulk. The profits from those movies will start out paying back the money borrowed to make the pictures in the first place, and the rest will go straight into Marvel's coffers.
That's different from the Spider-Man franchise, where Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Columbia Pictures takes home most of the cake, or the X-Men franchise, which is produced mostly with News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) subsidiary 20th Century Fox's cash, and therefore enriches Rupert Murdoch more than it does Marvel.
Let's say Iron Man fails miserably at the box office, despite having star power at the helm (Jon Favreau) and in front of the camera (Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow). Maybe Roger Ebert turns out to be allergic to iron or something. Whatever the reason, let's say the movie costs $186 million to make and pulls in only $100 million in worldwide box-office receipts. Ordinarily, the production company would be seriously in the hole here. But not Marvel.
Instead, the financial backers for the first wave of movies -- namely HSBC (NYSE: HBC) and GE (NYSE: GE) -- would swallow the losses, write off the rest of the borrowings, and get the rights to make Iron Man movies. I'd imagine the banks would then sell those rights. In the case of Iron Man, Marvel would simply be back to making movies with some partner studio again, just as it will continue to do with its established hit franchises. The worst thing that could happen is that Marvel probably wouldn't get to pick its partner.
That's the entire downside, and it doesn't sound horrible at all. No monetary risk, only intellectual property. Let's see how much Marvel -- the company that envisioned the characters in the first place -- truly can make when it can reap all of the producer fees from movies made under its own total creative control. Then watch the stock price jump as Mr. Market finally gets it.
That's just the beginning: Marvel envisions about $46 million in new operating income from the first two movies in 2008 but nearly $180 million in 2009 as the second wave comes out and the first two movies go into heavy rotation on pay-per-view and HBO-style movie channels. But wait -- it still gets better. These numbers don't include toy sales and other merchandising, which should bring in between $45 million and $200 million per film.
I'm not saying Marvel will make more money than Disney (NYSE: DIS) next year. But the seeds for a mighty profitable future have been sown, and we could very well be seeing the next entertainment giant in its hatchling stage. Jump aboard now, and thank me in 2009.
Or, if you'd rather not take one guy's word for Marvel's brilliance, you can take a free 30-day trial to our Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter service, where an entire team of our top analysts keep you updated on this stock. It's a three-time Stock Advisor recommendation, and you'd have a heart-stopping 650% return if you'd invested on the original recommendation in July 2002.
And if you believe in Marvel for 2008 (sounds like a presidential campaign, doesn't it?), please go ahead and rate the stock "outperform" in Motley Fool CAPS for me. We can get this ticker back to the five-star rating it so richly deserves. This is easy money, folks.

 

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Then watch the stock price jump as Mr. Market finally gets it.

Mr. Market has been getting his ass kicked lately but Marvel is still hanging in there. That has to be a good sign. Everyone is panic selling but even in a panic, smart people are holding on to Marvel because they know the future is bright. If Marvel doesn't hit $35 a share by mid-year then I'll be stunned.

 

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Stock seems to be manipulated a bit but yeah it's holding up fairly well now. I'm dissapointed a bit it's not higher. I think the strike ending will help quite a bit.