Ronald Perelman can light up one of his famous cigars. After 10 years of litigation, comic book company Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. has settled its litigation against the renowned billionaire, who is the company's former chairman.
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Through the settlement, Mafco Holdings Inc., a company now known as MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc. that's controlled by Perelman, will pay $80 million to a Mafco litigation trust to pursue the claims on behalf of unsecured creditors and shareholders. The litigation trust was created during Marvel's bankruptcy reorganization.
But it wasn't easy. Marvel may have birthed the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, but when it came to negotiations, the company and Perelman were locked into two years of mortal combat around a negotiating table.
The comic book publisher first filed the suit against Perelman and his related companies on Oct. 30, 1997, claiming they had breached their fiduciary duty when they reaped $553.5 million in dividends from three bond sales by various Marvel parents in 1993 and 1994.
Marvel filed for Chapter 11 in 1996 in the Delaware bankruptcy court after sales of comic books slowed and a baseball strike hurt its Fleer and Skybox trading-card businesses.
The company, which has published comic books since 1939, owns characters including Blade, Daredevil, Elektra and The Punisher. But it wasn't really until Perelman departed and Avi Arad took over Marvel that the company expanded into movie production (the company also licenses its creations for TV shows, consumer products, toys, foreign-language publications and theme park appearances). In fact, the Marvel saga is well-documented in the book, "Comic Wars," but the settlement is truly the last chapter in the company's comeback tale. - Jamie Mason
