DISNEY TO ACQUIRE MARVEL: CONFERENCE CALL

Characterizing Disney's upcoming acquistion of Marvel as a "win-win," Disney's Robert Iger and Tom Staggs fielded questions from the media during a Monday morning conference call.

Iger, president and CEO of Disney, said the deal's purpose isn't an attempt to rebrand the Marvel characters, but to "put an even greater spotlight on Marvel as a brand and help Marvel grow even more."

"We felt it was a great opprtunity at the right time and when I say we, I mean both companies," he said "When the time is right, it's smart to move with alacrity, which is what we've done."

"It was not a deal that Marvel had to do or a deal Disney had to do," said Staggs, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of Disney, "but was we spoke, it became clear it was a deal we should do."

Below are other highlights:

* Iger said Marvel has done an excellent job using its characters both logistically -- and from a business standpoint.

"There's an expression, 'If it ain't broke...', and that's our feeling here," he said.

Iger said Marvel will be more valuable as part of Disney, than as a standalone company.

* Iger noted that as one company, Disney can remove "the friction of third-property "companies" as one vertically placed entity.

* Iger, who has been vocal about the weakening DVD market, noted that Marvel's "high quality property" give Disney an advatage. "They are not bullet-proof or immune from the changes in the market scenery, but they have established footing."

* About film deals Marvel has with other studios, Staggs said he felt Marvel had good deals in place and in these types of acquisitions, the deals "generally stay enforced."

* Iger praised Marvel's current use of characters in understanding their stories and bringing them to the market place.

"We don't pretend to be more of an expert at doing this than they do," he said. "It's not just about buying a brand, it's about buying people who know these character and we're going to rely on them thoroughly."

* Iger said that Disney aligning itself with Marvel could produce similar benefits as Disney's deal with Pixar.

* Under Disney, will Marvel start producing 3-D films? "That will probably be determined by the talented people who are producing Marvel's theatrical films," Iger said.

* Asked about Marvel's distribution with Paramount for its self-financed films, Staggs said Disney will respect deals in place because "it is the right thing and it is the right thing legally."

"Clearly it is in our best interests over time if we ended up as sole distributor of these films," he said.

* Iger pointed to the recently rebranded boys network Disney XD -- which currently airs approximately 20 hours a week of Marvel content -- as an example where the deal will have a clear impact.

* Marvel's name will not be changed.

* Asked about Marvel Studios' future at its current facility at Manhattan Beach, Calif., Iger said, "We've made no real estate decisions at the moment, but I don't see any need to move them from Manhattan Beach."

* Staggs noted that until the deal closes, Disney is not making any decisions for Marvel.