FILM FUND: L.A. production company Participant Media has launched a $100 million film fund partnership with the Doha Film Institute, a Qatar organization working to grow the film industry in the Middle East. The fund will cover production and development funding for 12 to 16 feature films in five years. Participant has been involved in the production of such movies as “An Inconvenient Truth,” “The Help” and “Lincoln.”
BUYOUT: Comcast Corp. will take full ownership of entertainment giant NBCUniversal with last week’s $16.7 billion purchase of General Electric Co.’s 49 percent stake. GE will also sell related real estate assets to NBCUniversal, including NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, for $1.4 billion. NBCUniversal owns cable networks such as Miracle Mile-based E channel as well as its Universal Pictures movie studio, theme parks and other entertainment entities.
OFFICE OPENING: Microsoft Corp.’s new Santa Monica office will make content for the Xbox game console. The content could be available as early as this year. Nancy Tellem, president of entertainment and digital media at Microsoft, said during an interview at the D: Dive Into Media conference that the Redmond, Wash., tech giant has opened the 125-person office in Silicon Beach. Tellem will head the office, which will develop scripted interactive content.
OFF TO RACES: The L.A. Marathon has a new title sponsor: the maker of Asics shoes. Asics Corp., a Japanese athletic apparel company with North American headquarters in Irvine, committed to sponsor the event through 2015, the company announced Tuesday. Asics will replace American Honda Motor Co. Inc. of Torrance, which sponsored the event for three years beginning in 2010.
DEBT DEAL: Molina Healthcare Inc. has priced a $450 million debt offering. The Long Beach company will pay annual interest of 1.1 percent on the cash convertible senior notes, payable Jan. 15 and July 15. The notes will mature in 2020 and can be converted to cash in certain circumstances. The company estimates net proceeds from the offering at about $436 million. The company intends to repurchase up to $50 million of its common stock, repay about $40 million of debt as well to pay for other corporate purposes and hedges.
BOARD SHAKEUP: Filmmaker James Cameron has resigned from the board of Beverly Hills 3-D technology firm RealD Inc. due to his heavy workload, the company announced. Cameron, an early champion of the 3-D format, is finalizing scripts for his “Avatar 2” and “Avatar 3” films, which he hopes will go into production by the end of the year. Cameron is also a co-founder of L.A. 3-D technology company Cameron Pace Group, which sells production technology. He expressed his commitment to continue his use of 3-D in future films.
TAX HIKE: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has formally endorsed a half-cent sales tax hike on the March 5 ballot. If voters approve the sales tax measure, L.A.’s sales tax rate, which now stands at 9 percent, would rise to 9.5 percent, making it one of the highest in Los Angeles County. The half-cent sales tax increase would generate an estimated $200 million a year in additional revenue for city coffers. The city budget has been running an annual structural deficit of about $210 million.
IPO: PennyMac Financial Services, a residential mortgage loan provider led by former Countrywide Financial President Stanford Kurland, has said that it filed with U.S. regulators to raise more than $287 million in an initial public offering. The Moorpark company, an affiliate of publicly held mortgage REIT PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, said that it plans to use net proceeds to grow its mortgage banking business as the housing market recovers.
EARNINGS: ReachLocal Inc. has reported a net loss of $394,000, compared with a loss of $1.34 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue was $120 million, up 20 percent. … Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. has reported net income of $38 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $1.7 million the same quarter the year before. Revenue was $744 million, up 130 percent. … Activision Blizzard Inc. has reported net income of $354 million, 258 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 8 percent to $2.6 billion. … Skechers USA Inc. has reported net income of $4 million compared with a loss of $58 million for the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 40 percent to $396 million.
