Business news in brief

Hercules Inc., the Wilmington chemical maker that agreed this month to be acquired by Ashland Inc., said second-quarter earnings rose 48 percent after favorable resolution of a tax issue. Net income climbed to $61 million, or 54 cents a share, from $41.3 million, or 36 cents, a year earlier, Hercules said yesterday in a statement. Sales gained 12 percent to $612.6 million. Net income from continuing operations, which excludes some items, fell 15 percent to $35.1 million, or 31 cents a share, Hercules said. Net income from discontinued operations was $25.9 million, or 23 cents a share, because of the favorable resolution of a tax indemnification for a divested unit, the company said. Profit from continuing operations fell because costs rose faster than prices, Hercules said.

- Bloomberg News

German software maker SAP AG said it would shut down TomorrowNow, a subsidiary that provided support for Oracle Corp. software and was accused of stealing information from Oracle. SAP's Americas headquarters are in Newtown Square, Delaware County. TomorrowNow was formed by former engineers at PeopleSoft Inc., with the idea of providing less expensive software support to PeopleSoft customers. SAP CEO Henning Kagermann has acknowledged that Tomorrow-

Now made "inappropriate downloads" of Oracle's software coding, but he has maintained that its rival "wasn't significantly harmed" by the breach.

- AP

K-Tron International Inc., Pitman, said in a statement it had its best quarterly and six-month results in its history. Second-quarter 2008 net income was $7.158 million, 36.3 percent higher than the $5.253 million reported in the second quarter of 2007. Year-over-year, quarterly revenues rose from $47.57 million to $60.21 million. Diluted earnings per share rose to $2.49 in this year's second quarter from $1.84 last year. For the first half of 2008, K-Tron reported net income of $12.809 million, diluted earnings per share of $4.47 and revenues of $117.61 million. The company designs, produces, markets, sells and services material handling equipment and systems for various industrial markets.

- Rhonda Dickey

State revenue officials say Pennsylvania Lottery sales rose by just a fraction of a percentage point in the 2007-08 fiscal year. But the Revenue Department also says the latest figure sets a sales record. Lottery sales totaled $3.089 billion in 2007-08, compared with $3.076 billion in the previous year.

- AP

MEDecision's interim president and chief operating officer, Timothy W. Wallace, has resigned and terminated his consulting agreement, effective last Friday, the company announced in an SEC filing. Wallace, who will remain on the Wayne company's board, became interim president in April. MEDecision makes software that insurance companies use to manage the care of subscribers with chronic illnesses.

- Stacey Burling

Ametek Inc., a Paoli company that makes electronic instruments and electromechanical devices, had a good second quarter, so good that it raised its earnings forecast. It reported that its net income for the second quarter of 2008 rose by 13 percent, or 61 cents per share, to $65.8 million from $58 million, or 54 cents a share, in the second quarter of 2007. Sales were up by 25 percent, to $648.8 million in second-quarter 2008 from $519.5 million during the same period in 2007. In a news release, Frank S. Hermance, chairman and chief executive officer, said the company is raising its earnings estimate for the year to $2.50 to $2.54 per share, up from its previous estimate of $2.42 to $2.47. He said the company expects third-quarter sales to be up about 20 percent from last year's third quarter.

- Stacey Burling

Pennsylvania's unemployment rate remained at 5.2 percent of the workforce in June, the state Department of Labor and Industry said. But that was up from 4.3 percent a year before, a sign of the national economic slowdown. In June, the state had 332,000 unemployed people, up 1,000 from May and 59,000 more than a year ago. The number of people with jobs fell in June by 12,000 from May to 6.062 million, but it was up 37,000 from June last year.

- Paul Schweizer

Nobel Learning Communities Inc. said it adopted a plan, effective for four years, to protect shareholders' rights if there is any attempt to acquire the West Chester company on terms not deemed fair to all shareholders. The company said it acted after the recent purchase of 10 percent of its stock by entities associated with Michael R. Milken, bringing their total stake to about 37 percent of the company. Nobel operates private elementary and middle schools and preschools.

- Paul Schweizer

The Unisys Corp. subsidiary in the United Kingdom said it had won a $63 million contract to create and manage an information network for the Kent County Council in England. The network will link several government entities, including schools, county offices and libraries. Unisys is based in Blue Bell.

- Stacey Burling

Gatehouse Holdings L.L.C., Berwyn, says it has purchased and closed Amalfitano's Bakery, New Castle, Del., and consolidated its product lines with Gatehouse's D'Ambrosio's Bakery in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia. Terms weren't disclosed. The deal expands Gatehouse's bread routes and depot system into Delaware and Maryland, said Gatehouse managing director Christopher D. Jansen, D'Ambrosio's president. Amalfitano's employed about 15. Head baker Joe Amalfitano and several bakers and drivers have been hired at D'Ambrosio's, which plans to open warehouse depots to support the new routes.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Tyco International, West Windsor, is moving its SimplexGrinnell fire and security unit headquarters and 100 jobs to an expanded 20,000-square-foot office at Liberty Property Trust's Pennsylvania Business Campus, Horsham, from Montgomeryville, according to broker CB Richard Ellis, which represented SimplexGrinnell.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in yesterday's auction. The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.520 percent, down from 1.610 percent last week. Another $23 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.920 percent, down from 1.955 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,961.58 while a six-month bill sold for $9,902.93.

- AP