Sassa Expected to Be Named to Top Post at Marvel

Scott Sassa, who resigned last month from a top-ranking position at Turner Broadcasting System, is expected to take the helm of New York financier Ronald Perelman’s ailing Marvel Entertainment Group, according to television sources.

Sassa could not be reached for comment Monday. But television sources say the 37-year-old executive is preparing to move from Atlanta to New York to become chief executive of the financially troubled comic book company.

Sassa, who is well regarded in Hollywood, has had discussions with Fox Broadcasting and with Viacom’s Sumner Redstone, sources say he is attracted to Marvel because of the challenge of turning around an under-performing public company in which he would have an equity stake.

As president of Turner Entertainment Group, Sassa ran Turner Pictures, Hanna-Barbera studios and the cable programming operations of TBS, TNT, the Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. But Sassa’s authority was shrinking after Turner’s merger with Time Warner, with operations like Hanna-Barbera moving into Warner Bros. and the cable group reorganized in a way that put a new management layer between him and Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Broadcasting who is heading the group.

Sources said Sassa would also be involved in the operations of other media companies Perelman buys. A consummate buyer and seller of companies, Perelman this fall sold his New World Entertainment for $2.48 billion to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Perelman is currently the chairman of Marvel and his long-time lieutenant, William Bevins is chief executive and assumably would move to another position in Perelman’s group.

The downturn of the comic book market has sent Marvel’s stock to record lows. On Monday, it closed $4.625, down from $13.25 earlier in the year and a high of $34.25 in late 1993.

Earlier this year, the company laid off nearly 300 employees and earlier this month the company said a third-quarter loss would put it in violation of certain bank agreements.

While Marvel has blamed its losses on declines in comic sales and trading card collecting, its problems are much broader. The company, with characters like Spider-Man and X-Men, has been far less successful than giants like Warner Bros. and Walt Disney in turning its cartoon family into merchandising blockbusters, although it has several agreements in place to help it do so.

The company has top-rated cartoon shows on the Fox Children’s Network. It has a joint venture with Planet Hollywood to open comic-book theme park restaurants. And rather than license film rights to its characters to Hollywood studios, starting next year it plans to develop its own movies through the new Marvel Studios.