LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co agreed to buy filmmaker George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd and its "Star Wars" franchise for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster deal that includes the surprise promise of a new film in the series in 2015.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told analysts on Tuesday that the plan is to release a new movie in the series every two to three years thereafter. The last "Star Wars" picture was "Revenge of the Sith" in 2005, and Lucas has in the past denied any plans for more.
Lucas, a Hollywood icon known for exercising control over the most minute details of the fictional universe he created, will remain as a creative consultant on the new films.
"It's now time for me to pass 'Star Wars' on to a new generation of filmmakers," he said in a statement. Lucas will become the second-largest individual holder of Disney shares, with a 2.2 percent stake.
Disney will pay about half the purchase price in cash and issue about 40 million shares at closing.
"This is one of the greatest entertainment properties of all time," Iger said. Like Disney's purchases of Marvel Entertainment and Pixar studio, LucasFilm will "drive long-term value to our shareholders," he said.
Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said the deal would lower Disney's earnings per share by a low single-digits percentage in fiscal 2013 and 2014. He also said Disney would repurchase all of the issued shares on the open market within the next two years, on top of planned buybacks.
This agreement marks the third time in less than seven years that Disney has signed a massive deal to take over a beloved studio or character portfolio, part of its strategy to acquire brands that can be stretched across TV, movies, theme parks and the Internet.
In early 2006, Disney struck a deal to acquire "Toy Story" creator Pixar, and in the summer of 2009 it bought the comic book powerhouse Marvel.
"Disney already has a great portfolio and this adds one more," said Morningstar analyst Michael Corty. "They don't have any holes, but their past deals have been additive."
Iger said he and Lucas first discussed a possible sale about 18 months ago. Lucas was pondering his retirement, and Iger was looking to add another well-known brand to the Disney empire. The two signed the deal at Disney's Burbank, California, headquarters on Tuesday.
"Everywhere I went, 'Star Wars' was already there, and sometimes they got there ahead of us," said Iger in an interview. "I kept seeing that brand and decided maybe we should buy it."
He told analysts he believed there was "substantial pent-up demand" for new "Star Wars" movies. Each of the last three films in the series would have grossed $1.5 billion in today's dollars at the box office, CFO Rasulo estimated.
The film's iconic characters also will boost Disney's sales of toys and other consumer products, particularly overseas, executives said. Sales of "Star Wars" items such as Darth Vader and Yoda action figures total roughly $215 million a year, Rasulo said.
In 2005, the year the last "Star Wars" film was released, LucasFilm generated $550 million in operating income, Rasulo said.
Disney also will be able to extend the presence of the franchise at its theme parks around the globe, Iger said. The company's parks already feature rides based on "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones," another Lucas property.
"Star Wars" characters also are likely to find a home on the Disney XD cable channel, which is aimed at young boys, Iger said.
Iger wouldn't commit to keeping the "Star Wars" operation separate from Disney, as he did with Pixar and Marvel.
And Lucas won't sit on the Disney board despite his 2.2 percent stake in the company, Iger said. The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who held a large stake in Disney after it bought his Pixar studio, had a seat on the Disney board.
From a fan's perspective, critics said there was sure to be at least some excitement at the prospect of episode seven in the saga of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
"Do I want to see more Star Wars movies? Not really, but they're not making these movies for me," the film writer "Mr. Beaks" wrote on the well-regarded industry site Ain't It Cool News. "There's a whole new generation of Star Wars fans, and they worship the prequels like folks my age worshipped the original trilogy."
Besides "Star Wars," the Lucasfilm deal also includes rights to the "Indiana Jones" franchise, though Disney did not elaborate on any plans for that series.
(Additional reporting by Michael Erman in New York and Himank Sharma in Bangalore; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Ciro Scotti)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/disney-buy-star-wars-producer-lucasfilm-4-05-200720453--finance.html
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Many more millions listen to the race on the radio or now also many more millions watch it live on the Internet. If you are out and about on the roads in Melbourne city at 3pm on the first Tuesday in November you can be forgiven if you think the world has come to an end, if only for a few minutes.
It is hard to explain to other cultures how embedded into Australian life and culture the Melbourne Cup has become over its 150+ years. It is an integral aspect of its folklore, a celebration that reminds Australians about the good life they all share, especially when they pull together like our early Australian pioneers.? The big race was introduced in 1861 and the first winner was Archer.
However it will take a long time to find another horse to compare with the British bred Australian trained mare Makybe Diva.
The race is for three-year-olds and over, and covers a distance of 3,200 metres. It is generally regarded as the most prestigious ?two-mile? handicap in the world and is run anticlockwise around the picturesque Flemington racecourse. The first Melbourne Cup was the brainchild of a member of the committee of The Victorian Turf Club. 17 horses contested the inaugural event winning ?170 cash and were awarded a hand-beaten gold watch. Elements of the media at the time were disparaging. ?Its effect would be to make any brumby bought out of a mob for 30 shillings the equal of the finest horse in the land.
In 1875 the race was run for the first time on a Tuesday. Carnival crowds treated the event as if it were a day off. This came to fruition in 1877 when Melbourne Cup Day was officially declared a public holiday for Melbourne city.
?Melbourne ? is a stately city; it has museums, and colleges, and schools, and public gardens, and electricity, and gas, and libraries, and theatres, and mining centres, and wool centres, and centres of the arts and sciences, and boards of trade, and ships, and railroads, and a harbour, and social clubs, and journalistic clubs, and racing clubs, and a squatter club, sumptuously housed and appointed, and as many churches and banks as can make a living. In a word, it is equipped with everything that goes to make a modern great city. ?It ? has one specialty? on the first Tuesday in November? business is suspended ? and every man and woman, of high degree or low, who can afford the expense, put away their other duties and come. They? swarm in ?a fortnight before the day, and they swarm thicker and thicker day after day, until all the vehicles of transportation are taxed to their uttermost to meet the demands of the occasion, and all hotels and lodgings are bulging outward because of the pressure from within. They come a hundred thousand strong, as all the best authorities say, and they pack the spacious grounds and grandstands and make a spectacle such as is never to be seen in Australasia elsewhere? The grandstands make a brilliant and wonderful spectacle, a delirium of colour, and a vision of beauty. The champagne flows, everybody is vivacious, excited, and happy; everybody bets, and gloves and fortunes change hands right along, all the time.
Day after day the races go on, and the fun and the excitement are kept at white heat; and when each day is done, the people dance all night so as to be fresh for the race in the morning. And at the end of the great week the swarms secure lodgings and transportation for next year, then flock away to their remote homes and count their gains and losses, and order next year?s Cup-clothes, and then lie down and sleep two weeks, and get up sorry to reflect that a whole year must be put in somehow or other before they can be wholly happy again. ?The Melbourne Cup is the Australasian National Day.? It would be difficult to overstate its importance. It overshadows all other holidays and specialized days of whatever sort in that congeries of colonies. Overshadows them? I might almost say it blots them out.?
The VRC?s Fashions on the Field was instigated in 1962, following initiatives implemented by a VRC sub-committee set up in 1960 to promote the Centenary Melbourne Cup.? In 2012 it will celebrate its anniversary of 50 years of fashion and fun.