I haven't seen anyone else on line put this speculation together yet, but yahoo news is plugging this story:

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112989/brands-disappear-2012-247

It is basically a list of ten highly recognizable brands that are predicted to disappear in 2012. The list includes such notables as Sears, Nokia and American Apparel. In most cases, the prediction is that the listed brand will be bought out or absorbed by another, or in some cases just fail altogether. #1 on the list? Sony Pictures, who happens to be the holder of the Spider-man film franchise. Their reasoning:

"Sony has a studio production arm which has nothing to do with its core businesses of consumer electronics and gaming. Sony bought what was Columbia Tri-Star Picture in 1989 for $3.4 billion. This entertainment operation has done poorly recently. Sony's fiscal year ends in March, and for the period, revenue for the group dropped 15% to $7.2 billion and operating income fell by 10% to $466 million. Sony is in trouble. It lost $3.1 billion in its latest fiscal year on revenue of $86.5 billion. Sony's gaming system group is under siege by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News) and Nintendo. Its consumer electronics group faces an overwhelming challenge from Apple. The company's future prospects have been further damaged by the Japan earthquake and the hack of its large PlayStation Network. CEO Howard Stringer is under pressure to do something to increase the value of Sony's shares. The only valuable asset with which he can easily part is Columbia which would attract interest from a number of large media operations. Sony Entertainment will disappear with the sale of its assets."


Which raises the question... would the studio be sold off whole, or would the various assets (Such as the Spidey rights) be broken up and auctioned off separately? Does Marvel have any say in the transfer of the film rights should Sony Pictures/Columbia be sold? And considering that Disney is one of the few entertainment companies that could conceivably buy out the remains of Sony Pictures, would they be willing to do so?

Of course, all of this depends on this prediction being accurate that Sony will have to divest themselves of their entertainment division in the first place. But it's the first scenario I've actually seen where I can buy into the possibility of Marvel getting back their most valuable film rights.