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George Lucas Consolidates his Empire
Shadowcat writes "George Lucas is consolidating his galaxy, merging LucasArts, Lucas Digital (ILM & Skywalker Sound), Lucas Licensing, and Lucasfilm into one mega-corporation to provide a single place to create all sorts of media. You can find the
article on SF Chronicle Site."
Hollywood.com's story
Bizjournal.com's story
Uemedia.com's story
Anyway, it IS going to (still) be called Lucasfilm Ltd.
If you'll look at the story again, you'll see that the article only referenced Apple by mentioning that it was "Apple CEO Steve Jobs" who bought the company. Apple has never owned Pixar or had any business relationship with it, other than sharing CEOs, unless I am badly mistaken. David
"Death Star Productions"
No, that'd be AT&T.
Will I retire or break 10K?
People are overlooking that GWL is building a brand new facility in San Francisco's Presido, which when completed (approx 2008) will house all his businesses, with the exception of Skywalker Sound (still at Skywalker Ranch) and LucasFilm, which is housed at a new facility just up the road from Skywalker Ranch. With all of his production busineses in one place, why have redundant HR or IT departments? Think of the benefits of having all your expertise centered in one spot, where they can easily advise and coordinate with each other.
GWL's a smart guy, and deserves the success he's achieved. I've worked for GWL, and let me tell you, it doesn't suck. Skywalker Ranch and Big Rock ranch are beautiful examples of what a work space can be. He puts his money where his mouth his, and when things goes well, he reaps the reward, and when things don't work out, he pays the tab.
Steve Jobs doesn't run Pixar the way he runs Apple.
And, in typical fashion, George Lucas takes credit for starting Pixar and then selling it to Steve Jobs.
IIRC, what really happened was that, in the early 1980s, all the people in the then-small ILM computer graphics department wanted to do full-length animated films using computer animation. Lucas, on the other hand, wanted ILM's CG department to supplement ILM's business as a VFX company for traditional films. They were able to reach an agreement where the guys in ILM's CG department would get to go out on their own, and in return they would hire and train their replacements, as well as giving ILM continued access to whatever technology they developed. Thus Pixar was formed.
In 1986(?), Steve Jobs acquired a controlling interest in the newly formed company. However, Pixar is John Lasseter's baby, and would most likely not have become so successful were it not for him.
On a side note, Lucas is a revisionist and a bit of a megalomaniac. I think that the new consolidation is an attempt to bring in the "wayward" companies (aka ILM). And while the LucasArts people might be glad about having better access to ILM's resources, I'll bet that the ILM people are none to pleased. I know I'd be pissed.