Disney Buys Lucas - Making Disney One of the Few Local Companies to Continue to Buy Out of Area Competitors

One of the few bright spots in Los Angeles film future (with the loss of so many films to New York, other states and other countries due to tax credits and other programs), is the just announced acquisition of Lucas Films by Disney.  This is one of the increasingly rare cases where a Los Angeles firm is doing the acquiring rather than a New York or overseas company being the surviving entity..

While Lucas Films' production schedule has declined in recent years, its four campuses - all in Northern California except for one in Singapore) for its eight divisions - with Industrial Light & Magic being only one of the major divisions - are still one of the largest concentration of film & entertainment talent outside of Hollywood.

So even while the plan is for all the divisions and employees to remain in their present facilities, it is logical future expansions will likely take place in the LA area.  This move continues to make Disney one of the very few local companies in any field to aggressively buy out of area  and local competitors (starting with their purchase of ABC, Pixar and then Marvel) as opposed to being acquired by an out of area corporation, a fate shared most of the other major film studios.