Business news in brief

The Philadelphia area's jobless rate rose three-tenths of a percentage point in October to 5.9 percent, the

Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry

reported today. A year ago, the area's unemployment rate was 4.3 percent. The area consists of Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and parts of Delaware and northern Maryland. In the city of Philadelphia, the October jobless rate rose two-tenths of a percentage point to 7.7 percent.

- Paul Schweizer

Mortgage insurer

Radian Group Inc.

, Philadelphia, paid out fewer claims in October than expected, suggesting that programs to prevent home foreclosures were working, chief financial officer Robert Quint said. Radian isn't yet sure whether the claims are being delayed or will be eliminated by efforts to alter mortgage requirements to help owners keep their houses, he said. Mortgage insurance pays lenders when homeowners default.

- Bloomberg News

Rite Aid Corp.

shareholders approved a reverse split of the common stock as the Camp Hill, Pa., company sought to regain New York Stock Exchange compliance by boosting its share price above $1. The options would be 1-for-10, 1-for-15 or 1-for-20. The board expects to select the split ratio and put it into effect by Feb. 28. Rite Aid has until April 16 to regain compliance; it continues to be listed on the exchange.

- Roslyn Rudolph

Tyco Electronics Ltd.

, the world's largest maker of electronic connectors, with operating headquarters in Berwyn, is combining two of its connector businesses a year ahead of schedule to help trim costs. The combination is part of the company's efforts to save about $100 million a year, chief executive officer

Tom Lynch said.

- Bloomberg News

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

, in Collegeville, said the successor drug to its childhood meningitis vaccine, Prevnar, had been filed with the European Medicines Agency for the prevention of pneumococcal disease, which covers illnesses including meningitis, sepsis and pneumonia. The new vaccine, PCV13, offers broad protection because it involves 13 bacteria strains, Wyeth said.

- Linda Loyd

Medical-transcription-service provider

MedQuist Inc.

, Mount Laurel, paid $6.6 million to settle allegations that it overbilled federal agencies, the U.S. Justice Department said. MedQuist did not admit any wrongdoing. The government had accused it of overbilling for work done for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense and the Public Health Service between 1998 and 2004.

- Reid Kanaley

Meat-processing giant

Pilgrim's Pride Corp.

received preliminary bankruptcy- court approval to borrow $365 million. The Pittsburg, Texas, firm has 100 workers at its Franconia plant. A final hearing on financing, arranged by Bank of Montreal, will be Dec. 17. The company filed Monday for Chapter 11 reorganization. The firm also said trading in its stock had been suspended by the New York Stock Exchange. Shares are now listed on the Pink Sheets, where they rose 14 cents yesterday, to 28 cents.

- Roslyn Rudolph

London-based

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.

, which has large operations in Philadelphia, will cut 200 jobs at a plant in northern England as generic competition slashes demand for the British drugmaker's products.

- Bloomberg News

A group of managers and employees has won an auction to buy

Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc.'s

prized investment-management unit, which includes the

Neuberger Berman Management Inc.

money-management business. The bid by the Neuberger Berman group beat out two other competing bidders, one of which included private-equity firms

Bain Capital Partners L.L.C.

and

Hellman & Friedman L.L.C.

, which had proposed paying $2.15 billion. Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 15. A new firm,

Neuberger Investment Management

, will comprise businesses that managed about $160 billion of assets.

- AP

State Street Corp.

, Boston, said it would cut 1,600 to 1,800 jobs, or 6 percent of its global workforce, between now and the end of the 2009 first quarter, in an effort to reduce operating costs. The investment- services company will reduce its staff mostly by consolidating middle- and senior-management ranks, it said.

- AP

Chairman Kevin Martin is urging the

Federal Communications Commission

to adopt rules to speed the resolution of disputes between TV programmers and cable and satellite systems. Martin has asked fellow commissioners to vote Dec. 18 to require an agency ruling within six months of complaints such as those by NFL Network and WealthTV that they were unfairly denied space on cable and satellite.

- Bloomberg News

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

said it would suspend operations and lay off the bulk of its workers at a New Mexico mine, cut production estimates through 2010, and curb other costs as it struggles to cope with plummeting copper prices. The layoffs come on top of about 800 jobs cut last month at its Western copper and molybdenum mines. Shares fell to a record low.

- AP

American International Group Inc.

said a financing entity, funded by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the insurer, purchased $46.1 billion in complex debt securities insured by AIG. As part of the deal, the insurance-type contracts, called credit default swaps, were terminated.

- AP

The average seven-day yield on taxable money market funds was 1.04 percent this week, down from 1.12 percent last week,

iMoneyNet Inc.

said. A seven-day yield is an annual yield based on the preceding seven days' level of income by the fund. The average yield on tax-free funds was 0.79 percent this week, down from 0.84 percent last week.

- Paul Schweizer