LAYOFFS: Hawthorne manufacturer OSI Systems Inc. plans to ditch its Camarillo plant by April 30 and lay off 118 workers as it consolidates to its headquarters in Hawthorne, according to documents the company filed with the state. Vice President Ajay Vashishat said the company would expand production in Hawthorne and bring in new hires to replace staff now at Camarillo. It is not known whether laid-off workers would be among those hired for the new jobs.
BIG IN CHINA: Santa Monica studio Lions Gate Entertainment, which partnered with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding to launch a streaming service in China, is again looking east. The company is in talks with China’s second-largest broadcaster, Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co., on a deal that would involve the companies investing a combined $1.5 billion in film production and distribution. As part of the agreement, Lions Gate would help distribute Chinese films produced by Hunan in overseas markets, and Hunan would set up a unit in the United States, according to a regulatory filing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
RESIGNED: Mattel Inc. Chief Executive Bryan Stockton abruptly resigned after cringeworthy holiday-quarter results showed his attempts to revive the creative culture at the company weren’t cutting it. Longtime board member Christopher Sinclair will take over as chief executive on an interim basis while the company hunts for a permanent leader. Several quarters of declining revenue worsened last quarter, with profit falling 59 percent from a year earlier to $150 million and revenue dropping 6 percent to $2 billion.
REJECTED: A Los Angeles City Council committee has rejected the recommendation of the board of commissioners for the Department of Recreation and Parks to turn management of the Greek Theatre over to Live Nation Entertainment Inc. The council’s Arts, Parks, Health, Aging & River Committee voted in favor of keeping the Griffith Park venue with its operator of 39 years, Nederlander Organization Inc., which has partnered with Staples Center developer Anschutz Entertainment Group in a bid to keep running the Greek.
NEVER MIND: California Resources Corp. will no longer seek approval for a major drilling project in Carson, much to the delight of local environmentalists who had successfully pushed the Carson City Council in March to pass a 45-day moratorium on new oil drilling. The Westwood oil giant, recently spun off from Occidental Petroleum Corp., said that the project was no longer practical because crude prices are so low. The company withdrew its application to drill up to 200 wells in the northeast corner of the city, near Cal State Dominguez Hills.
GOING LONG: Culver City multichannel network Fullscreen Inc. will take on the big screen, launching a division to develop and produce feature films. Fullscreen will finance the movies, occasionally bringing in co-producers, and will continue pursuing brand integration and sponsorships just as it does for its short-form content. Fullscreen’s videos have long been free to view, funded in part by ad revenue earned through Google Inc.’s YouTube platform, its main distributor. The network is hoping its feature films could land distribution deals with other video platforms such as Vimeo, Netflix Inc. or Apple Inc.’s iTunes. That would crack open new revenue streams for Fullscreen.
CUTBACKS: Struggling Long Beach logistics company UTi Worldwide Inc. has announced that it will cut several senior positions and other jobs worldwide, just a month after Edward Feitzinger took over as chief executive. The layoffs will primarily affect the freight-forwarding business, as UTi has grappled with falling freight revenues. The company posted its eighth straight quarterly loss in December.
PRESERVATION: Historic sites and buildings in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County will for the first time be eligible for legal protections, and owners might qualify for tax breaks, under a measure that won initial approval from the county Board of Supervisors. The proposed law, expected to receive final approval in the next few months, will apply to private property in unincorporated areas of the county, including Altadena, East Los Angeles and View Park.
