Oh Yeah
Posted on 11/01/2012 12:51:38 PM PDT by Nachum
In the “Empire Strike Back,” Yoda admonishes Luke Skywalker for spending his life dreaming of the future, “never his mind on where he was … what he was doing.” But at 68, George Lucas, the creator of the “Star Wars” saga, seems to be doing much thinking about the years ahead – in fact, experts say, his decision to sell his company to Disney DIS +1.36% was an estate planning move worthy of a Jedi Master.
Disney will buy LucasFilm for $4.05 billion in cash and stock, the two companies announced Tuesday. By cashing out now, experts say the filmmaker spared his family the need to pick up the pieces of his empire after he’s gone. It also allows him to focus his remaining years on his charitable endeavors – particularly Edutopia and the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which he founded in 1991. “I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education,” Lucas wrote in 2010 (pdf) on GivingPledge.com , which invites the world’s wealthiest people to commit most of their money to philanthropy.
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May the force be with your portfolio
Lucas should just send it in for Hairy Reed to spend.
Sell before rise in capitol gains he must.
Ding ding ding ding
We have a winner!
Maybe the next few installments of Star Wars will be Pixar movies. It would be an improvement!
Not a wise decision. "Education" is an bottomless hole. Best thing Lucas could do is set up a foundation to award scholorships to worthy students.
I think if I were in a position of wealth like this it would make more sense to create small private schools from scratch and try to organize them in ways where people with bright kids stuck in bad locations and circumstance can get them there.
ding,ding,ding, a winner we have.
I think estate planning was a key part, but also just a continuation of the Empire. I think selling out to the Mouse makes Lucas comfortable that a time-tested marketing Juggernaut will keep his universe alive even after he passes beyond this one.
promote the Feynman lectures (and W. Edwards Demings teachings (and others)).
Lucas should set up some positions and programs at Hillsdale College.
Dude, I attended High Schools larger than that place......
Anyone besides Lucas making the next trilogy would be an improvement. He has become his legacy’s own worst enemy.
So, in other words, the Oprah approach?
Expect to see more Jarjar binks type characters in Eps. 7
I’m thinking he’s cashing out BEFORE the possibility of his taxes go SKY high. He’s hedging against an Ozero re-selection.
I don’t pay any attention to Oprah, so I don’t even know to what that refers.
All I know is that the US public school system is a disaster in many cases, and working through that even in the form of scholarships for college is inefficient at best.
It’s really kind of earth shattering to me to think of that USC rebel crowd, the guys that really invented modern block buster cinema, being old enough to plan their estates. I don’t feel old enough for these childhood heroes to be planning for their demise.
She spent a ton of money a couple years ago creating her own “Oprah Winfrey Academy” for poor kids in South Africa. I’m not sure how the results have been.
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