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...definitely one of the more--if not the most--difficult companies out there to forecast," says Bear Stearns analyst Glen Reid. In late May, just as Marvel kicked off what may be the greatest test of its powers yet--a slate of 10 independently financed films--the firm stunned investors and Hollywood alike by announcing that Avi Arad, the man behind the Spider-Man and X-Men film franchises, would leave to start his own production company. Not six weeks later, two more key execs departed unexpectedly--Tim Rothwell and Bruno Maglione, heads of Marvel's licensing and international divisions...
Others see Arad's exit as a sure sign that Marvel will soon change hands. Perlmutter is a candidate to buy some 20% of the company that he doesn't own; so is a private equity firm. Another logical buyer is Paramount, which will distribute Marvel's film slate. The studio is revamping, having recently bought rival DreamWorks SKG. Other names thrown out include Disney, which owns a large chunk of the Marvel library, and even TIME's parent, Time Warner, which owns Marvel rival DC Comics...
...very happy sitting on the beach earning 5% and just not worrying for a few months," says Tony Proctor, president of money-management firm Proctor Financial. He is raising the money-fund portion of all five of his model portfolios, citing worries over rising oil prices, a slowing economy, the summer stock-market doldrums and soaring tensions in the Middle East...
...fascinating new history, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death (Penguin; 370 pages), Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer prizewinning science reporter, tells the story of their decades-long effort to establish whether supernatural forces were more than sideshow illusions. They never came to firm conclusions, but their struggle to connect the dots makes for a captivating and even poignant tale...
...cornerstone of Snyder's findings and the message of gay business advocates is that gay workers should be willing to come out. Says Bob Witeck, CEO of Witeck-Combs Communications, a marketing and public relations firm in Washington that specializes in the gay market: "The sea change that he reflects is that he found enough openly gay managers to study...