...When Marvel had filed for Chapter 11 and bankruptcy they were truly In a time of hardship. In the mid 1990s, Marvel experienced sharp declines in both businesses, causing them to file for bankruptcy in December 1996. The problems were caused by a number of things, but I would have to say bad strategies overall being the biggest reason in which they had to file for bankruptcy. Marcel had six principle lines of business. Sports & Entertainment Cards, Toys, Children’s Activity Stickers, Publishing, Confectionary & Consumer Products and Licensing of characters. While continuing to run the company and trying to maintain operations constant, Marvel was not paying attention to the hottest means of entertainment that was trending; video games. Had they been paying attention to the industry they would have developed a strategy to enter this market. Also, the interest of comic books by consumers were falling sharply, which was another thing Marvel neglected to address. The new restructuring plan suggested by Perlman had three parts. First was an investment of $350 million by Andrew Group. Investments made by Andrew Group will relax the Cash flow position of Marvel. It will in turn increase its net cash reserves, after the acquisition of Toy Biz, by $33.5 billion. Next, as just mentioned was the acquisition of Toy Biz. Toy Biz is engaged in the business of manufacturing toys based on Marvel characters. It generates cash flows of approximately $60 million per annum which can be used to...
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...Case Analysis: Marvel Enterprises, Inc.__________________________________________ Marvel Enterprises, Inc is an industry leader of character-based entertainment, building its foundation on publishing comic books and licensing character rights over the past seventy years. After encountering some hardships in the late nineties, Marvel repositioned itself as a powerful global firm under the leadership of new CEO, Peter Cuneo. He developed a strategic recovery plan, allowing Marvel to overcome bankruptcy through the monetization of its extensive content library, long term development of characters, and the assurance of high-quality for all Marvel-related products. However, by 2004 concerns arouse regarding the sustainability and continued growth potential of this business model. Marvel needed to determine whether continuing their focus on popular characters was a sustainable strategy or if it was necessary to expand into lesser known characters to reach a larger audience. Cuneo also wondered if Marvel should venture past is current business operations to invest in content creation, rather than licensing the rights to others to do so. Marvel is currently competing in a red ocean, attempting to exploit existing demand and outperform its rival competitor, DC Comics, vying to obtain a greater market share. In order to do this Marvel should consider creating two divisions of character development. The first will focus solely on maintaining popularity and profitability of well-known...
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...superhero was defined during this generation and many of our most beloved heroes have their beginnings in the golden age. Characters like Captain America, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman were introduced to the American public during this era. However, with these new personalities, there is one who brought modern and innovative ideas to the genre and is often overlooked. That major player is Captain Marvel. Let’s face it, comparisons are everywhere. People usually want to compare things that are somewhat similar and feature just a slight change. These contrasts include the first incarnation of an item and the subsequent follow up creation. For example, in music, some may consider this true for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, in electronics it’s usually the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy, and for me, growing up, it was the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. The earliest model is great but the follow up incarnation is sometimes exclusively judged against the original because of subtle changes or simply because the original came first. Can this be true for the Captain Marvel and Superman comparison? In 1940, many companies created copycat characters to attempt to gain from Superman’s popularity and profitability. As the saying goes - from success imitation is bred. A perfect example of this was Fox Publications’ super character Wonder man, who was created and illustrated by Will Eisner. Wonder man is a good representation of a complete Superman imitator. Wonder man lasted...
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...Marvel Entertainment: Marvel Studios Amy J. Keller June 28, 2009 This case study focuses on the Marvel Studios franchise. Marvel Entertainment took a huge risk when it decided to stop licensing its’ characters to outside production companies and develop their own in-house productions via Marvel Studios. This study focuses on the history of Marvel Studios and what harm or benefit has come from the creation of Marvel Studios and the expansion into filmmaking. Biography/History Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is a prominent character-based entertainment company that is worldwide. The have a collection of 5,000 characters that cover a 70-year company span and sever media types (comics, toys, movies, et cetera). “Marvel’s strategy is to leverage its franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world, including feature films, consumer products, toys, video games, animated television, direct-to-DVD and online” (Viacom). Marvel Studios mission is to “develop and manage entertainment projects that leverage Marvel’s vast universe of creative content” (Marvel.com). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Marvel had licensed out a number of their characters for movies and direct-to-TV productions. Very few of these are remembered today. One that you might recall is Howard the Duck; it didn’t do so well in the box office. The reasoning behind such failures was the lack of research the company put into it’s licensing (Stax). Marvel Studios...
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...Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group Chen Ziqiang Wu Libin Lin Yingshuai Deng Linli Lim Yihao 2011/11/29 1. Why did Marvel file for Chapter 11? Were the proble ms caused by bad luck, bad strategy, or bad execution? We think that Marvel filed for Chapter 11 mainly due to its bad business strategy. Three of its six business lines, Trading cards, Stickers and Comic Books started facing the decline in sales after year 1993. There were two main reasons for this decline: First, these businesses increasingly had to compete with alternative forms of child entertainment (mainly video games). Second, the decline in sales was driven by disappointed collectors who had viewed comic books as a form of investment and stopped buying them as company stopped increasing the prices. We believe that the company should have foreseen these events while performing a market research and forming a long-term business and financial strategy. The three unpromising business lines accounted to 61% of total revenues of a company in year 1995. At the same time, the company's financial strategy was based on highly optimistic business expectations and was not suitable for unfavorable turn of demand for entertainment products towards video games. Due to its high leverage (52%), the company was not able to serve all the debt in case of sharply declining revenues. It is obvious that the company did not anticipate the change in customers' preferences and was wrong...
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...Aryan Shankar Catherine Thomas English I 2 November, 2015 Iron Man and its Role in Creating a ‘Positive Geek Culture’ Superheroes are everywhere these days. Although, the origin of superheroes can be traced back to the comic books of the 1930s and even earlier, they have been depicted in media like film, television shows, video games, radio broadcasts and graphic novels. They even find their place in apparels like t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks and underwear; stationery items like pencil boxes; accessories for electronic gadgets like cell phone covers and laptop skins; and various home furnishing items. Originally confined to a certain class of comic book fans, the popularity of superheroes has reached a wider audience with a lot of different people being happily associated with them. This phase of increasing infusion of superheroes into the mainstream culture started in the 1990s and the early part of the 21st century but it was only after the release of the film Iron Man that superheroes reached their present level of popularity. Therefore, it can be argued that Iron Man has led to the creation of what can be called, a ‘positive geek culture’. ‘Geek culture’, as it is popularly understood, has many different facets and it is not always associated with being a superhero fan. Geek culture includes interest in board games like Dungeons & Dragons, the film series Star Wars and martial arts films of the 1980s, and television series like Star Trek, Battlestar...
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...According to the journal article “The Amazing Spider-Man and the Evolution of the Comics Code: A Case Study in Cultural Criminology” by Cary D.Adkinson, Amazing Spiderman had a three-issue run 96,97 and 98 that challenge the standards of the industry with crime, delinquency, law enforcement, and drugs which these were had rules on regulation on in the Comic Code. Nixon Administration under the department of health was dealing with a drug issue in America they approached Marvel comics requesting them to produce a story on the danger of drugs publish in one of Marvel's big comics. Stan Lee picked Spiderman since he is more like the “everyday man”. Stan Lee wrote a three-issue story in Amazing Spiderman with an anti-drug message. The story had many things in it which clearly violated the code and when they summited it they were denied approval the code. They published the story anyway without approval and it sold well without the seal. This did not cause Marvel any issues but the Comic Code Authority instead by pressuring them to change the code since it was outdated. They had to change the regulations and weekend the strictness of the code. (Adkinson) This was an issue because Marvel was wanted to do good but the code outright banned drugs in anyway and form so they could not speak out against the drug issue which is terrible. This book was a major game changer for the industry...
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...Research Paper Comics & Politics In December of 1940 almost a year before the U.S. would enter into WWII, Captain America Comic #1 was released with the cover showing the super hero punching Hitler (Aiken, 41). This is only one of several different examples of politics being present in comics. No matter the political issue comics have not been afraid to express their views on politics. There is no denying that politics are present in comics, but the real question is, do politics belong in comics? Mainstream comics sole purpose is to make money, and companies will do write about anything if they think it will sell more comics. In this instance the comic book companies are using politics to gain interest and sell their product. Without the presence of politics in comics many story lines would not have been as strong, and many characters would not have been created. Atomic Warfare and the Regan administration both were heavily displayed in comics and both had a significant effect on comic books. When President Harry Truman ordered for the bombing of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki and revealed to the world the power behind atomic warfare, soon followed an onslaught of controversy whether this technology belonged in war. The world had never seen such power and soon the world began to debate this topic. Comic books soon began to publish stories, mainly involving superhero’s, with atomic related stories. As the years progressed and the U.S. entered into the Cold War with...
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...HBS CASE STUDY Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group Why did Marvel file for Chapter 11? Were the problems caused by bad luck, bad strategy or bad execution? We believe that Marvel filed for Chapter 11 mainly because of its bad business strategy. As of year-end 1995, Marvel had 6 business lines: Sports and Entertainment Cards, Toys, Children's Activity Stickers, Publishing, Confectionery and Licensing of characters. Trading cards, Stickers and Comic Books started facing the decline in sales after year 1993. There were 2 main reasons for this decline: First, these businesses increasingly had to compete with alternative forms of child entertainment (mainly video games). Second, the decline in sales was driven by disappointed collectors who had viewed comic books as a form of investment and stopped buying them as company stopped increasing the prices. We believe that the company should have foreseen these events pregnant with dangerous consequences, while performing a market research and forming a long-term business and financial strategy. As one can see from the diagram below, the three unpromising business lines (filled in red colors) accounted to 61% of total revenues of a company in year 1995. At the same time, the company's financial strategy was based on highly optimistic business expectations and was not suitable for unfavorable turn of demand for entertainment products towards video games. Due to its high leverage (52%), the company was not...
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...The Marvel case presents two very clear issues faced by the company. - Should Marvel expand the use of their library of characters, or stick with the characters they know to have been successful in past ventures? - How long can these proven-successful characters continue to capture the interest of the public enough to turn a meaningful profit? - Should Marvel expand their business model to include more capital-intensive ventures? - For example, Marvel’s characters are in movies, but Marvel does not produce these movies beyond screenplay contribution In 2009, Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Enterprises for $4 billion. This business transaction answers the first question: Should Marvel expand the use of it’s library of characters? Yes, it should. The deal with Disney allows Marvel to take this chance with a near guarantee of success. Disney has proven time and again their ability to expand content via creative design and licensing. Marvel offers Disney an entirely new portfolio of characters (already successful due to the booming comic book/graphic novel industry Marvel built) upon which to apply it’s creative genius. Disney essentially acquired a “blank” canvas with 5000+ existing characters and story lines. With the help of Disney’s creative minds and knowledge of past successes/failures, the appropriate Marvel characters will be brought to life in the movie and toy industries, and will likely experience great success. This merger seems to be...
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...Case Distressed M&A and corporate strategy: lessons from Marvel Entertainment Group’s bankruptcy Joseph Calandro Jr Joseph Calandro Jr is the Enterprise Risk Manager of a global financial services firm and a Finance Department faculty member of the University of Connecticut (joseph.calandro@ business.uconn.edu). s the current recession unfolds, indications are that corporate executives and strategists will be making decisions in an economically distressed environment for some time to come.[1] Historically, investment and M&A activity tend to decline during periods of economic distress. However, a specialty form of acquisition, known pejoratively as ‘‘vulture investing’’ has flourished during such times. Perhaps because it has been practiced as a specialty by financiers accustomed to balancing high risks for quick rewards, acquiring distressed companies has not been widely viewed as a corporate strategic opportunity. Recently, however, distressed M&A has become more common: A B as of April of 2009, there were 60 distressed M&A deals for the year including Valero Energy Corporation’s purchase of VeraSun Energy Corporation’s assets in bankruptcy; in 2008, there were 220 distressed deals; and in 2007, there were 134.[2] B B When assessing distressed M&A opportunities, corporate strategists should leverage their industry knowledge and expertise to search for hidden value, and also to select qualified industry experts to validate strategic and valuation assumptions...
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...Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group 1. Why did Marvel file for Chapter 11? Were the problems created by bad luck, bad strategy or bad execution? Before addressing its bankruptcy, it is necessary to have a general understanding of the company being analyzed. Marvel Entertainment Group began in 1939 as Timely Publications, a comic book publishing company that gained fame around the time of the Second World War. One of its most successful characters from this period was Captain America, who was often depicted fighting against the Germans. Other new characters came in the decades that followed, some of which still maintain popularity to this day, including The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men, and Spider-Man. Attempting to reflect the general “psychological spirit” of the era (WWII, Cold War, etc.), many of Marvel’s creations in the mid-20th century fought against Communist foes. Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee helped usher in the ‘Marvel Age of Comics’ of the 1960’s, writing most of the superhero titles himself, and restoring many of the aspects from the late 1930’s superhero genre. Skipping forward a few decades, Marvel Entertainment Group was bought in January 1989 by Ron Perelman for $82.5 million, financed using only $10.5 million of equity. The remaining portion was borrowed from a syndicate of banks led by Chase Manhattan, seeing this as a relatively insignificant amount for Perelman...
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...Marketing Strategy 8050 Marvel Enterprises, Inc. Case Writing by Xiaodan Dong February, 2008 Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (b) Why was Marvel’s turnaround so successful? Would you characterize that success as a fluke? Or do you view it as sustainable? Why? How? Marvel’s success is not a fluke because its business model is sustainable. Marvel’s new strategy monetized the content library by licensing characters for use with media products. During an era in which mass media is very important in people’s life, only one media tool, publishing, is not strong enough to expand Marvel’s influence to consumers. Comic books can target a very limited market, mostly composed of male teenagers and young adults from 13 to 23 years old. It is very difficult to expand this traditional market. After many years of development, this market has matured and is very stable. Meanwhile, people have been more exposed to movies, televisions, and video games, which more effectively influence people’s consumption behavior than do comic books. All these media modes are able to reach more consumer segments than traditional comic-book publishing. Marvel’s potential to develop increased dramatically when its market expanded to broadcast media. Other consumer products, such as toys, worked in conjunction with media products, these two kinds of products reinforced each other. Marvel’s market expansion developed in both a comprehensive and intensive manner. Marvel emphasized long-term value in its...
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...Case Study: Online Comic Book Retailing Case Study: Online Comic Book Retailing Much like a lot of retail businesses the sale of comic books and related items has both grown and moved from the brick and mortar shops to online. In some cases this is to expand their customer base. In others it is a way to reach customers without the overhead of a physical shop, which carries various levels over overhead. My case study will look at three businesses, Mile High Comics, (milehighcomics.com) Midtown Comics, (midtowncomics.com) and My Comic Shop .com (mycomicshop.com). These three shops have different backgrounds and different levels of web presence. I’ll consider each to these things in the case study of online comic book retailing. I chose online comic book retailing as its something that I have familiarity with. Once upon a time I was a manager at a brick and mortar shop in St. Louis, Missouri. The Comic shop that I worked at was a family owned business and had been around for 20 years. The time away near the end of the 90’s and we were beginning to see a decline in sales Like many comic book retailers. You see in the early 90’s the comic book industry saw a boost in sales. Young readers were picking up comics for the first time. Many were getting into comics for the first time many were returning. A big reason for this is was that the large publishers, DC Comics and Marvel, were making efforts to bring new readers in different ways. One of these ways was to begin making collectable...
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...this point, Delacortes company Dell Publishing later became a leading comic book distributer. The break from premiums to stand alone success came in July of 1934 when Eastern took the leap launching “Famous Funnies” a sixty-four page comic distributed by American News Company. Comprised as their earlier efforts were of recycled daily comics the “Famous Funnies” publications lasted for four decades churning out monthly editions. A tour of the covers from these monthly editions gives insight into what was happening in America and in some cases the world. Covers often reflected political themes during times of unrest in the...
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