★ Marvel and DS comics ★

Описание

Marvel Entertainment's success rests on the strength (and marketability) of its characters. The firm lends its more than 5,000 characters (which include Iron Man, Spider-Man, and X-Men) to publishing, licensing, and film production. Through Marvel Publishing, the company is a leading comic book publisher. Licensing operations include character use in movies (such as Sony Pictures' wildly successful Spider-Man series), TV shows, clothing, video games, and other consumer products; Marvel earns toy licensing revenue through a deal with Hasbro. The company is a subsidiary of media giant The Walt Disney Company.With over 5,000 proprietary characters in its arsenal, Marvel Entertainment, Inc., is one of the world's leading character-based entertainment companies. Marvel is involved in the creation of feature films, DVD/home videos, video games, and television shows. Its characters are also licensed for use in apparel, toys, collectibles, and snack foods. In addition, Marvel's comic book operations command nearly 50 percent of the comic book market. Falling sales and profits forced Marvel to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1996. Toy Biz Inc. acquired the company in 1998 and adopted the Marvel Enterprises name. The company's name was changed to Marvel Entertainment in 2005. Toy Biz's Canadian Roots The history of Toy Biz can be traced to Chantex Inc., a Canadian company created in the late 19th century. Sol Zuckerman, the founder's grandson, inherited the business in 1961, when it was earning $160,000 in sales. The restless 21-year-old maintained the family firm as a core interest, bringing its sales to nearly $4.5 million by 1980. In the meantime, he devoted more of his concentration to the acquisition and operation of several Montreal nightclubs and toyed with the idea of running for public office. Zuckerman's tony discotheques were frequented by celebrities, and he earned a reputation as a fast-talking, fast-moving wheeler-dealer. Zuckerman beat a hasty retreat from the disco scene in 1980, however, after witnessing the assassination of a colleague by letter bomb. In the 1980s, he revisited the infants' and children's goods business that had bored him in years past. Zuckerman transformed himself into one of Canada's highest-flying merger and acquisition artists during the ensuing decade, and his family business emerged as one of the country's fastest-growing enterprises. In 1980, he merged Chantex Inc. with Earl Takefman's Randim Marketing, Inc., a manufacturer and wholesaler of school supplies, to form Charan Industries Inc. By the time Charan went public in 1984 its annual revenues had multiplied fivefold from 1980, to $20 million. The firm's Charan Toy Co., Inc. subsidiary emerged as a leading toy company with a particular emphasis on licensing. In 1985, it held the Canadian rights to nine of the top ten toys in the North American market, including the immensely popular Cabbage Patch Kids name and logo. Charan employed what analyst Ira Katzin of Prudential-Bache Securities Canada Ltd. (Toronto) called "a very novel approach" to consumer goods branding, an approach that would be carried on when Charan Toy was reborn as Toy Biz. The company was among the first to implement its brands--both licensed and proprietary--very broadly, applying the venerable Cooper hockey equipment brand (acquired in the mid-1980s) to Charan's existing childrenswear line, for example. This strategy would become commonplace throughout the consumer goods and entertainment industries and form a cornerstone of Toy Biz's success in the 1990s. Perlmutter Acquisition Reinvigorates Toy Biz Zuckerman did not see the benefits of these strategies, however, for he sold the toy business in the late 1980s. Charan soon re-emerged as an American-owned company, Toy Biz. In 1990, Toy Biz was acquired by independent investor Isaac