The Glenn Duker Solicitors
office is often involved in business sales, so we are always interested
when big businesses are sold around the globe. One of the more
publicised and talked about takeovers in recent times is the Disney
acquisitionof Lucasfilm. Robert Iger (CEO) announced that Disney would
be making the purchase for a whopping $4.3 Billion. This includes the
Star Wars franchise, their special effects house (Industrial Light
& Magic), Skywalker Sound, and LucasArts.
The franchise rights were originally owned by
creator, George Lucas. Early in his career, Lucas had a bad experience
with his independent films, where both were recut before release. After
learning his lesson, Lucas turned down a $500,000 fee to direct Star
Wars: Episode IV. Instead he accepted $50,000 and the right to all
sequels. A multi-billion dollar franchise followed, and now who’s
smiling?
Now after 6 feature films, several series’, video
games, theme park rides, toys and other merchandise, Lucas has decided
to pass on the baton (or light sabre). The deal will still give Lucas
the final say on any of the next films but this is a major step down
from his involvement over the past 36 years.
The sale of Lucasfilm is a great example of just how
much is involved in large business deals, and how much information has
to be transferred over. The Star Wars universe has been maintained in a
database called the Holocron, which lists over 17,000 characters, a
few thousand planets, and more than 20,000 years of history. As this
was quite a bit for Disney to digest, the sale of the company came with
a guide, Pablo Hidalgo, a founding member of the Star Wars Fan Boy
Association. Hidalgo now works at Lucasfilm as the Brand Communication
Manager and has the job of keeping all things accurate in the Star Wars
world.
For advice on selling or buying a business, please contact Glenn Duker, Lawyer.
No comments:
Post a Comment