The two old men stood out from the Brown Derby's usual clientele...
On an average morning, the Disney World restaurant sees a few dozen overstimulated 6-year-olds – all on the verge of a meltdown.
But that day in May 2011, the Brown Derby was closed to the public. Its only customers were deep in conversation over a parfait and a massive omelet... and a deal 23 years in the making.
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney (DIS), was making a bid for Lucasfilm. The multimillion-dollar production company behind the Star Wars movies would be the crown jewel in Disney's illustrious collection.
But Lucasfilm's creator, George Lucas, wasn't biting. He didn't need the money. And he wasn't interested in a bidding war over his baby.
He just wanted whoever was in charge to do right by him.
Iger had a few ins...
Famed animation studio Pixar started as the graphics division of Lucasfilm.
He had scooped up the business almost a decade earlier... and let it continue to innovate and create on its own. It was enjoying one of the most impressive blockbuster runs ever seen.
And Iger was in the midst of recreating that magic following Disney's 2009 acquisition of superhero franchise Marvel Entertainment.
The two men also had more than 20 years of history. In the early '90s, Iger – working as a TV executive at the time – greenlit Lucas' labor of love, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
Lucas turned Iger down that day in May. But he promised to come back when he was ready to sell. And as it turned out, that didn't take long...
A year and a half later, in December 2012, Lucasfilm became a Disney franchise.
Disney paid $4 billion for the smash-hit production business...
Since then, Lucasfilm productions have generated more than $12 billion in revenue for the company... three times the purchase price and counting.
The Disney-Lucasfilm deal was one of the most important media mergers of the past 30 years. But deals like these are actually far more commonplace than most folks realize.
Dealmaking hadn't exactly been front and center since the pandemic. The uncertainty of 2020 froze many M&A plans.
The 2023 bank runs hit before this space could recover... And the Biden administration's response made it much harder for deals to get regulatory approval.
President Donald Trump rushed to hack away at red tape at the start of his term. But between tariff tumult and geopolitical instability, many management teams balked at the thought of making any big changes.
That doesn't mean nothing happened behind the scenes, though...
Even though companies weren't announcing deals, they were still keeping communication channels open.
And now, along with five years of pent-up demand and aggressive red-tape cutting, a handful of other factors are creating a prime M&A environment...
Companies aren't as worried about sudden changes... and they're willing to put their money to work again.
Put simply, we're setting up for a massive M&A boom as we close out this year... and head into 2026.
My team and I have been preparing for this moment for years...
We're holding a number of likely acquisition candidates in Microcap Confidential – our dedicated service for tiny stocks with major upside potential. In the past, we've seen companies like H&E Equipment Services double overnight.
Last night, we added yet another potential "one-day double" to our model portfolio. It's a machinery maker that sits at the heart of multiple powerful megatrends.
Investors seem to understand that this business is doing well on its own. But they have no idea what an acquisition could do for it.
This promising M&A candidate is trading well below our recommended buy price today. We don't expect that to be the case for long.
News of a deal could send shares soaring... in as little as a day.
Learn how to get 60% off a year of Microcap Confidential (plus more than $10,000 in research and free bonuses) right here.
Plenty of tiny businesses are making big waves in their respective industries. They're ready to get scooped up by a bigger business.
And when they do, they could very well become one-day doubles in the making.
Regards,
Joel Litman
December 10, 2025
