Apple's brand value is nearly twice as much as Microsoft, which ranked second on the list with $63 billion. Google secured a third rank on the Forbes' list with a brand value of $56.6 billion, followed by popular beverages company Coca-Cola at $56.1 billion net worth. Forbes' annual ranking of the most valuable brands rounded off the top 5 brands with IBM at $47.9 billion. There is a slight reshuffle in the Forbes' Top 100 list compared to last year. While Apple stood strong on highest rank, its net worth increased from $104.3 billion to $124.2 billion this year.
Star Wars holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the total value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at US$42 billion, making Star Wars the second-highest-grossing media franchise of all time. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm for US$4.06 billion and earned the distribution rights to all subsequent Star Wars films, beginning with the release of The Force Awakens in 2015.
Meanwhile the Star Wars movies had been out of the theaters for some time, although there was still some movement on the Clone Wars cartoon. As it turns out, Disney has snapped up the Lucas empire for a cool $4.05 billion. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Lucas himself broke down the deal in a video statement.