Hasta La Gadget!

In what may be considered as the acquisition of all acquisitions, the Walt Disney Company has bought Lucasfilm Ltd. for just over $4 billion. The production company is responsible for all six Star Wars movies, as well as the Indiana Jones series, The Land Before Time, and American Graffiti.

The deal is a stock and cash transaction, with Lucasfilm founder George Lucas receiving around half of the $4.05 billion in cash, plus approximately 40 million stock shares. Lucas says that “it’s now time for [him] to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers.” Lucas always believed that the Star Wars name would live on well past his death, so Lucas “thought it was important to set up the transition during [his] lifetime.”

The deal also includes Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and LucasArts, meaning that all the Star Wars video games are also now owned by Disney. Kathleen Kennedy, Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will take over as President of the new Lucasfilm division and will report to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn. George Lucas himself will stay on as creative consultant for the new Star Wars films, with Kennedy serving as executive producer.

It’s obviously unknown what the transaction will mean for the future of Lucasfilm and its many movies that it produced, but going from being completely owned by just one person (George Lucas) to now being owned by a huge corporation will surely spark some changes in the company, and possibly even some changes to upcoming films.

Disney acquires Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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This is still breaking, but massive media conglomerate Disney has bought Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars. Disney bought Pixar in 2006 and Marvel in 2009, so they’re no strangers to massive purchases. However, the worst (or best, if you loved Attack of the Clones) news is that they’re rebooting the Star Wars franchise and making a seventh film to hit theaters in 2015. From the press release:

Continuing its strategy of delivering exceptional creative content to audiences around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) has agreed to acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. in a stock and cash transaction. Lucasfilm is 100% owned by Lucasfilm Chairman and Founder, George Lucas…  [With] George Lucas serving as creative consultant, Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future.

The conference call for investors starts at 4:30 EST, so we’ll be getting more details then. The purchase includes notable special effects studio Industrial Light and Magic, which produces special effects for a whole bunch of Hollywood blockbusters. This year, it worked on The Hunger Games and The Avengers. We’ll update more as the whole internet shudders.

Image courtesy of Witney Seibold, and it’s not the real logo.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-ray, Man embarks on full-scale Millennium Falcon replica project,

It must be Big Touchscreen Day over at Acer headquarters. In addition to announcing a pair of all-in-one desktops, the company is trotting out two touch-enabled monitors, available in 23- and 27-inch sizes. Though both have 1080p resolution, the 23-inch T232HL uses IPS technology to achieve wide viewing angles, while the larger T272HL has a Vertical Alignment (VA) panel. Otherwise, the specs are near-identical: a 100 million to 1 contrast ratio, 5ms response time and a trio of inputs that includes VGA, DVI and HDMI. As for design, you’ll notice they have a similar industrial design as the new all-in-ones, with thin frames, edge-to-edge displays and a see-through stand. Both will be available this month, with the 23-incher going for $500 and the 27-inch model selling for $700.

Filed under: Displays, Acer

Acer outs T232HL and T272HL touchscreen displays, on sale this month for $500-plus originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Softbank unveiled a bevy of new phones for its winter and spring lineup, and among the raft of new hardware is a Disney Mobile Android handset. Clad with a white or pink back, the smartphone’s rear is emblazoned with the smooching likenesses of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, who also make an appearance on live wallpaper. A cutesy motif may pervade the cellphone, but its specs are a sign that the mice can hold their own. The waterproof device packs LTE connectivity, a 4.5-inch display (1280 x 720), 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 13-megapixel camera, 8GB of built-in storage and a microSD expansion slot. Currently, the phone runs on Ice Cream Sandwich, but an update to Jelly Bean is coming down the pike. Unfortunately for avid Mouseketeers in other territories, the mobile is only slated for a launch in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

Softbank unveils Disney-themed Android handset in pink and white originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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3D-printing is awesome, but it has its limits. For the time being, we mostly get static plastic figures, and while resolution is getting better all the time, we’re far from a real replicator future. A new development is bringing us one step closer, however: printable optics. More »