If that's the case, Iger should go to jail for stealing. That's an incredible purchase for $4 billion.
You'd think it's a good investment:
Lucasfilm brings in $850 million a year, including merchandising, ILM everything . . . and that probably works out to about $350 million in profits, after operating expenses. So, absent any new movies (and continuing licensing fees for characters), it would probably take Disney over a decade to profit off the deal if they don't make any new Star Wars films.
Of course, to maintain licensing/royalties, you need to continue to prime the pump, i.e. make more Star Wars films so kids still want to buy a Boba Fett lunch box.
Revenge of the Sith probably made about $550 million net profit. So, Episode VII, VII, and IX should make Disney about $1.7 billion, over the next decade. So without a bump in merchandise sales, Disney over a decade would get about $3.5 billion in licensing fees/ILM, plus $1.7 billion from the films . . . which is about $5.2 billion. Totally reasonable.
In order to get the $$$ back faster, Disney will push the merchandise like heck, and of course, do the stand-alone Han Solo film and Yoda films, maybe those will bring an extra $300 million?
Revenge of Sith costed $115 to make, and that wasn't that long ago, now you Disney begging Brucheimer to keep Lone Ranger down to at least $200 million . . . but it swelled up above this number.
For all the paradoxical fan bashing that fans do of George Lucas, it is not a given that anybody can do Star Wars better. Disney is rushing to put out a Star Wars film every two years . . . nuts, IMHO.
The Star Wars deal was also a gentleman's deal of sorts as Lucas wanted a good caretaker for the franchise that he spent so much of his life working on. That affects the price . . . who else has over $4 billion to spend on Star Wars? Sure, Comcast could have got involved, but George has deep ties with Disney, both personal and business-wise.