Disney, which recently acquired LucasFilm from George Lucas, has shuttered the gaming division of the company, LucasArts, opting to use the brand to license third-party development and publishing for future Star Wars and Indiana Jones titles.
It has replaced half its managers with veterans of advertising and publishing, patched up relationships with disaffected photographers and broken new ground with deals to license such things as photos and movie clips to mobile-telephone customers.
Over the past 18 months the firm has bought nine companies including an online self-publishing site, a financial-data firm and one with a technology that newspapers can license for an online-payment system.