Business news in brief

Tyco Electronics Ltd.

, which has U.S. headquarters in Berwyn, lost a contract valued at $2 billion to build a statewide wireless network in New York to improve communication for the first responders to emergencies or terrorist attacks. Testing last year showed that Tyco Electronics didn't remedy problems outlined in August, the state said in a statement. The state's Office for Technology wants a $50 million payment under a standby letter of credit and said it may seek another $50 million, the Bermuda-based company said yesterday in a filing. In a regulatory filing, Tyco Electronics said it was "disappointed" by the termination and said it fulfilled its obligations and delivered a "state-of-the-art system."

- Bloomberg News

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

and

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield

of New Jersey have reached a reimbursement agreement that will let Horizon subscribers have access to the hospital and to the hospital's physician groups and facilities in New Jersey. About 25 percent of the hospital's patients are from New Jersey. The Newark-based insurer still has no agreement in place with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Presbyterian Medical Center and Pennsylvania Hospital. They will be out of Horizon's network by April if no agreement is reached. In the meantime, the hospitals have been running radio advertisements to alert Horizon subscribers that their insurance won't be accepted for care at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

- Jane M. Von Bergen

Fox Chase Cancer Center

is laying off about 3 percent of its 2,500 employees. The 70 to 80 employees affected will be notified by the middle of next week, said Franklin Hoke, a spokesman for the Philadelphia hospital. Michael Seiden, president and CEO, said revenue at Fox Chase is up 3 to 4 percent this year, but below the budgeted 8 to 9 percent. Most of the cuts are in administrative jobs. Seiden said the hospital has hired about 15 new physicians in the last year, but has not increased administrators. Hoke said the layoffs are unrelated to Fox Chase's legal battle to expand into neighboring Burholme Park.

- Stacey Burling

In the face of a slump in law firm revenues, Center City's

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll

said it had laid off secretaries and other administrative staff. The firm declined to say how many employees were let go, but one report put the number at as many as 65 in several Ballard Spahr offices around the country. The firm has about 1,500 employees in 12 offices around the country. The firm declined to say where the layoffs took place.

- Chris Mondics

Microsoft Corp.

has liquidated its 7.3 percent stake in

Comcast Corp.'s

Class A shares, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Microsoft owned roughly 150.9 million Class A shares as of March 6, 2008, according to a previous proxy filing. Microsoft's stake in Comcast, Philadelphia, was passive, which indicates that the investment was not made to change or influence control of the company. The filing did not indi-

cate when the shares were sold. Microsoft bought 115 million Comcast shares in 2002 as part of a deal related to Comcast's acquisition of AT&T Broadband.

- AP

Univest National Bank & Trust Co.

, Souderton, said it was expanding its mortgage business and had hired Edward D. Hughes, a veteran of GMAC Mortgage, as president of the operation.

- Harold Brubaker

Escalating credit costs forced

Bank of America Corp.

to report a $2.39 billion fourth-quarter loss, hours after it convinced the U.S. government it needed a multibillion-dollar lifeline to survive the absorption of

Merrill Lynch's

hefty losses. While trading losses in the company's capital-markets business weighed on results, most of Bank of America's core business units remained in the black.

The Bush administration agreed early yesterday to give Bank of America an additional $20 billion worth of capital to help it stomach the losses at Merrill Lynch, which it acquired Jan. 1.

In connection with the package,

Bank of America slashed its quarterly dividend to a mere penny from 32 cents, and agreed to further limit executive

pay and to work more intensively to modify the mortgages of distressed homeowners.

- AP

Citigroup Inc.

said it is splitting up into two businesses as it reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $8.29 billion - its fifth straight quarterly loss. One business, Citicorp, will focus on traditional banking around the world, while the other, Citi Holdings, will hold the company's riskier assets. CEO

Vikram Pandit's

move will allow Citigroup to sell or spin off the Citi Holdings assets to raise cash. It also reveals the company's growing focus on back-to-basics lending and deposit-gathering, and dismantles the "financial supermarket" created a decade ago. The bank's fourth-quarter loss amounted to $1.72 per share. Analysts expected a loss of $1.31 per share. While the per-share loss was higher than the consensus estimate, the total loss was smaller than the $10 billion many investors feared.

- AP

The government says it will provide a $1.5 billion loan to the auto-financing arm of

Chrysler L.L.C

. The

Treasury Department

says the aid will be in addition to a package of loans provided to both Chrysler and General Motors Corp. last month in an effort to buy time for the two companies to reorganize. The $1.5 billion loan to Chrysler Financial comes after the government provided similar support to GMAC, the financing arm for General Motors.

- AP

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

said it had expanded a mortgage modification program to cover investor-owned mortgages serviced by Chase, the company's U.S. consumer and commercial banking business. Chase said its expansion of a foreclosure-prevention program announced Oct. 31 could cover $1.1 trillion more in investor-owned loans, including those held in securitizations, bundles of mortgages sold to investors. The move expands the program from mortgages Chase owns to those it services by collecting payments and distributing them to investors.

- AP

Rental-car company

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.

said it would eliminate more than 4,000 jobs worldwide as it further cuts costs amid slowing demand.

- AP