Disney and Lucasfilms merge to release new Star Wars movies

The Walt Disney Co acquires Lucasfilms studio owned by George Lucas for $4.05B. At the same time, the two companies announced the start of work on a new trilogy of Star Wars.

One of my greatest pleasures last 35 years was watching as Star Wars passed from one generation to another, - George Lucas says, one of the main tasks of whom, in his own view, was to give the project to safe hands, since Star Wars can exist without Lucas.

Lucasfilms was founded in 1971 to release THX 1138 film which failed that time, but after that Lucasfilms went about the development of such franchises as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Disney gets the rights for them too.

According to the reached agreements, Disney will pay half the cost by cash and the rest by own shares. After the transaction, George Lucas will become the creative consultant of the company.