Walt Disney Co. agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion in cash and stock, adding the comic-book characters Iron Man and Spider-Man to its lineup of princesses and live-action stars.  Marvel investors will receive $30 a share plus 0.745 share of Disney stock, the companies said in a statement Monday. The deal is Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger’s second-largest following the $8.06-billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006. The companies expect the transaction to close this year.

Marvel Entertainment Inc. chief executive officer Isaac Perlmutter stands to receive more than $1.4 billion for his 37-percent stake in the comic-book publisher when it is taken over by Walt Disney Co.

Perlmutter, 66, will receive $866.7 million in cash and Disney stock worth $565.3 million, based on current prices. The amount represents a 28-percent premium over Marvel’s August 28 closing price. Perlmutter, who will continue to run Marvel, declined to be interviewed through a spokesman, David Collins.

Perlmutter is largest holder of the New York-based company’s stock. His Toy Biz Inc. bought Marvel, then under bankruptcy protection, in 1998. He was named Marvel CEO in 2004.

Paul Touradji had a good year in 2008, a 12-month span that most other traders would like to forget. His flagship hedge fund, Touradji Global Resources Fund LP, returned 8.6 percent trading oil, copper and aluminum.  The average hedge fund lost 19 percent, and some expert managers, such as Chicago-based Citadel Investment Group LLC, saw their funds drop more than 50 percent. Touradji’s biggest competitor, Ospraie Management LLC, closed its largest fund.