the bottomline

LOS ANGELES:

March Capital Partners announced the closing of its first fund, totaling $240 million, with a focus on technology and media startups in Southern California.

The VC firm, based in Santa Monica, has invested more than $100 million in at least 15 companies globally, spanning both early- and late-stage companies across multiple tech sectors, centered on the infrastructure behind consumer and mobile services. The fund was founded in 2014 by Jim Armstrong, Sumant Mandal, Gregory Milken and Jamie Montgomery.

“L.A. is a big focus for us,” said Milken, who is the son of financier Michael Milken. He added that about one-third of March Capital’s investments will be in Southern California-based startups. Milken, who formerly worked as a business development exec at Fox and Warner Bros., said he’s interested in investments in distribution and discovery of digital media, gaming, and virtual reality and augmented reality. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Canada-based film and TV group Entertainment One reported Tuesday that its revenues for the financial year ended March 31 rose 2 percent to £803 million ($1.17 billion), driven by a strong performance from its television and family content, but offset by weaker film figures. Underlying EBITDA was up 20 percent to £129 million ($188 million).

Strong organic growth fueled a 27 percent increase in revenues in the television division to £188 million ($274 million). The company acquired or produced 998 half hours of new programming over the year, up from 752 half hours the previous year. The Mark Gordon Company, which eOne acquired in January 2015, has boosted the group’s TV results. (RTRS)

LOS ANGELES:

Leading music-streaming service Spotify saw its revenue soar 81 percent to 1.94 billion euros ($2.17 billion) in 2015, but its losses also grew 6.7 percent to 173 million euros because of the company’s increased investment.

The figures, released Monday, continue the pattern of growth and loss that has marked Spotify since 2013, as the outfit keeps beefing up its offering and investing in new products.

Although it has yet to raise its profit margins, Spotify has been gaining ground since its launch in 2008, in spite of stiff competition from rivals Apple, Rhapsody, Google Play and Jay Z’s Tidal, among other services. (RTRS)

NEW YORK:

A strong start to the year from Best Buy was overshadowed by a lengthening string of declining quarterly sales and a pessimistic outlook that added to a chorus of woes from the retail sector.

The chain’s shares dropped almost 6 percent before the market opened Tuesday.

Last week, Target Corp. reported slowing quarterly sales and said that it could see more of the same in the current quarter. That would reverse almost two straight years of increases.

Others are seeing the same atrophying sales. (AP)

ALBANY, New York:

The state’s attorney general has sued Domino’s Pizza Inc., affiliates and three franchisees alleging they underpaid workers based on payroll reports generated by the parent company’s computer system.

“We’ve uncovered rampant wage violations at Domino’s franchise stores, and intensive involvement by Domino’s headquarters that caused many of these violations,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday. “At some point, a company has to take responsibility for its actions and for its workers’ well-being.”

Schneiderman said the company knew since at least 2007 that its PULSE system’s payroll software undercalculated gross wages while still encouraging franchisees to use it. (AP)

LONDON:

De La Rue Plc, the world’s largest commercial banknote printer, is scouting for potential joint venture partners for its business that makes paper for banknotes, its chief executive said.

The company would also look at small bolt-in acquisitions in its personal identification business, as it looks to grow the business that also makes UK passports, CEO Martin Sutherland told Reuters.

Shares in De La Rue rose as much as 7 percent on Tuesday, after the company reported a higher full-year profit, indicating that it had made strategic progress in the first year of a five-year turnaround programme. (RTRS)

LONDON:

Italy’s IPLOM oil refinery has shut down as the company works to repair a damaged pipeline, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The refinery initially continued processing crude at the 40,000 barrel per day (bpd) unit after an oil spill from a pipeline feeding the complex in April. But the refinery shut in early May as authorities investigated the cause of the incident.

As a result of the unplanned closure, IPLOM was not able to take a cargo of Iranian crude oil that it had booked, which would have been the first delivery to Italy since international sanctions were lifted against Iran in January. (RTRS)

GENEVA:

Switzerland’s main telecom group Swisscom has been fined 71.8 million Swiss francs ($72.5 million; 64.70 million euros) for abusing its dominant position in sports broadcasting, the Swiss competition authorities said Tuesday.

The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said Swisscom had gained a “dominant position in live broadcasting of games of Swiss football and ice hockey championships as well as of certain foreign football leagues on pay TV.”

This was mainly because one of its subsidiaries, Cinetrade, owns exclusive rights regarding the broadcast of sports content on Swiss pay TV, COMCO said. (AFP)

THE HAGUE:

Investor discontent with Royal Dutch Shell over multi-million euro pay packages for its top executives rose sharply at this year’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday.

Although Shell’s shareholders approved the oil and gas group’s remuneration report, including chief executive Ben van Beurden’s 5.14 million euros ($5.74 million) package, 14.17 percent of investors opposed it, up from 3.84 percent last year.

Royal London Asset Management, which holds Shell shares worth nearly 1 billion pounds, said it was “disappointed” that van Beurden received very close to the maximum possible bonus in a year when the firm’s overall financial performance was weak. (RTRS)

YENAGOA, Nigeria:

A subsidiary of Italian oil producer Eni has declared a force majeure following an attack on a key gas pipeline in southern Nigeria, the company said Tuesday.

The measure at the Brass Rivers terminal took effect Sunday after the Ogbaimbiri-Tebidaba pipeline was attacked by suspected militants.

“I can confirm the force majeure on Brass,” Eni said in an emailed statement.

Force majeure is a legal term that frees a company from any contractual obligation due to circumstances beyond its control. (AFP)