Remember all those months ago when it was announced that Disney had plans to buy Marvel for a few billion dollars? [Read Disney To Acquire Marvel Entertainment For $4 Billion]

Well, the two companies took a major step towards that merger today, when Marvel shareholders approved the plan to merge the two companies. The cost of the merger, based on stock prices from yesterday, will have an estimated value of 4.3 billion dollars.

Of course there’s still the step of going through the Securities and Exchange Commission, but my guess is that it won’t be a problem, and the merger will be completed today as Marvel expects. It looks like we will start the New Year with the House of Ideas being owned by the House of Mouse. It will be interesting to see if any major changes are made at Marvel in 2010, or if Disney will let them do their own thing and cash big fat movie checks in a few years.

Marvel]