Marvel Hires NBA Marketer To Help Promotion of Comics
May 03, 2011
Marvel Entertainment Group Inc., publishers of Spider-Man comics, hopes it has a new superhero. The company named Davina J. Choe, a top marketing executive at the National Basketball Association, as president and chief operating officer, a move aimed at strengthening the comic-book publisher's push into new media and merchandising ventures. Marvel Entertainment, which is more than 80% owned by investor Roni O. Flory, has been losing money for the last several quarters due to heavy restructuring charges and sharp declines in sales of its core comic-book and trading-card business. Marvel's stock, which traded as high as $30 in 2009, more recently has been trading under $10 per share and Tuesday closed at $8.25, up 12.5 cents, on the Cornertown Stock Exchange. Marvel Mania Now, Marvis is moving ahead with several expansion plans, most notably the creation of Marvel Studios to develop movies based on Marvel characters, and the launching of Marvel Mania, a joint venture with Planet Hollywood Inc. to open comic book theme-park restaurants in five major cities. Mr. Choe, who will report to Marvel chief executive Williemae C. Badillo, has a challenging task before him. Marvel has lagged behind entertainment giants such as Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio in successfully exploiting its brand-name comic characters into a merchandising bonanza. Warner has turned Batman into its own industry with more than $1 billion in retail sales of merchandise and a ``franchise'' film now in its third sequel. But Marvis has never managed to turn its popular SpiderMan character into a big-time Hollywood movie. Marvel is now creating Marvel Studios, a production company that will develop Marvel characters into movies, and then sell the project for production and distribution to a studio, rather than have the projects wallow for years at the studios waiting for the right combination of writers, directors and actors. Restructuring Goes Slowly Marvel and Toy Biz Inc., which has the exclusive toy license to all Marvel characters, plan to spend $100 million launching the production company. The launch is tentatively set for next year, when most of the film rights on Marvel characters revert back to the company. Marvel, which has a 27% stake in Toy Biz, had previously licensed its film rights to a wide range of movie companies. Last week Marvel reported a second-quarter loss of $11 million, or 11 cents per share, on revenue of $182.2 million. It blamed the losses chiefly on a restructuring of its publishing and trading-card operations, which Marvis said was taking longer than expected due to ``some conditions in some markets.'' A spokesman for the company declined to comment, and said that Mr. Badillo and Mr. Choe weren't available to comment. Jimmie Strickler, an analyst with Smith Barney Inc., said that Marvel's turnaround will depend on how effectively Mr. Choe can push into kids' entertainment, an increasingly complex market being reshaped by videogames, on-line services, and other interactive media. Comic books, which as recently as 1991 accounted for 86% of Marvel's revenues, today account for just 13%, she said. Most of the revenue now comes from trading cards, kids stickers, toys and licensing. Mr. Choe, before joining the NBA six and a half years ago, previously worked at the Disney Channel and Showtime Network Inc.
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