Marvel Enterprises (MVL) addresses common myths about its business (quotes from conf call)

Below are some comments from Marvel Enterprises (MVL) from its March 7, 2005 conference call with investors.

Myth #1: Marvel’s operating income is mostly from the Spiderman franchise:

….. after coming out of bankruptcy we were highly dependent on "Spider-Man" … [now] income from the "Spider-Man" brand has decreased…in the year 2005, we expect only 15% of our operating income [from Spiderman movies].…the non-movie side of the "Spider-Man" is also estimated to be about 15%…"Spider-Man" as a brand….will provide about 30% of our operating income..

Myth #2: Marvel is a toy company:

…. remember that Marvel was brought out of bankruptcy by a toy company, and in those first couple of years….[we were] highly dependent on the toy business…But since 2001…we've been a very changed company…..for 2005, only 25% of our operating income will come from toy activities.

Myth #3: Marvel is hit-driven:

… as our linearing strategy is continued, the amount of business we do that is non-movie related every year has grown as a proportion of our total business….for 2005 the operating income that we are projecting "Fantastic Four"…only ranges between 10 and 15% of our operating income.

Myth #4:  Marvel’s licensing strategy front-loads revenues

…Actually, our licensing consolidation strategy is really a natural evolution from where we started…when we first emerged from bankruptcy…we needed cash and we gave multiple licenses [to different people]….while that helped us with our cash position, it did not help us with retailers …. [now] we'll have a cogent retail strategy with major retailers throughout the year….

(Quotes from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)