Johnson & Johnson says Boston Scientific to settle suits

LITIGATION

$1.73-billion settlement in stent suits

Johnson & Johnson said Boston Scientific Corp. would pay $1.73 billion to settle two suits related to patents for medical stents.

Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific faces additional court challenges to its Promus stent products, including a lawsuit by Cordis Corp.

Stents are mesh-wire tubes used to hold arteries open after they are surgically cleared of blockages.

ACQUISITIONS

Hummer sale is delayed a month

General Motors Co.’s plan to sell the once-hot Hummer line to a Chinese heavy-equipment maker has been delayed by a month.

General Motors and Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. said they were extending the deadline to complete the transaction until Feb. 28 pending final approval by the Chinese government. The previous deadline was Jan. 31 for a definitive agreement to sell the line once synonymous with America’s love for big off-road vehicles.

Hummer spokesman Nick Richards said the deal has cleared U.S. regulatory hurdles and that both companies were “optimistic the deal will be completed” by month’s end.

Sichuan Tengzhong said it was cooperating with the approval process.

REGULATION

New SEC staff in Obama budget

President Obama is seeking a 12% budget increase for the Securities and Exchange Commission, including $382 million for more than 100 new enforcement staff to work on the agency’s burgeoning caseload targeting fraud and market manipulation.

The request to Congress for nearly $1.3 billion for the SEC in the budget year starting Oct. 1 would boost total staff to 4,190 from the current 3,800 at the traditionally low-profile agency, which was rocked by its failure to detect the massive 16-year fraud by money manager Bernard Madoff.

BANKS

Wells reveals five-year plan

Wells Fargo & Co. announced plans to double commercial lending and revenue from fees in California over the next five years.

Five executives will lead the expansion at the commercial-banking unit, which provides loans and services to companies with annual sales of $10 million to $500 million.

ELECTRONICS

Semiconductor sales top forecast

Global semiconductor sales, hurt by the economic recession, fell 9% last year, beating a November estimate for an 11.6% drop, the Semiconductor Industry Assn. said.

Total sales dropped to $226.3 billion last year from $248.6 billion in 2008, the association said.

Gartner Inc. predicts that worldwide semiconductor revenue will advance 13% to $255 billion this year, returning to the same level as in 2008.

BANKRUPTCY

Muzak emerges from Chapter 11

Muzak, which provides background music heard in stores, office buildings and on-hold phone systems, has completed its financial restructuring and emerged from bankruptcy protection.

The company, based in Fort Mill, S.C., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware a year ago to refinance heavy debt.

Muzak Holdings LLC said it had significantly improved its balance sheet, reducing its outstanding debt by more than half, and realigned its organizational structure to improve clients’ experience.

MEDIA

AP signs deal with Yahoo

The Associated Press has signed a licensing deal with Yahoo Inc. that gives the news cooperative a steady stream of revenue at a time less money is flowing in from newspapers and broadcasters.

The announcement by both companies didn’t disclose the terms of the agreement.

The AP says it is still negotiating to renew its online licensing agreements with two other companies with far deeper pockets, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Google stopped posting fresh AP content on its Web site in late December.

Stung by the AP’s first downturn in revenue in years, management has said it needs to make more money from the online rights to its stories, photos and video as more people turn to the Web for information and entertainment.

-- times wire reports