Business news in brief

Tyco Electronics Ltd., Berwyn, said fiscal third-quarter profit and revenue would be higher than it earlier projected amid higher sales in markets at its electronic-

components unit. It said profit, excluding some items, may be as much as 17 cents a share, compared with its April forecast of as much as 6 cents. - Bloomberg News

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. said it had reached a deal with Indian drug developer Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. to develop and market selected products across emerging markets. Glaxo, with operations in the Philadelphia area, did not reveal terms of the deal, which is effective immediately but excludes India. - AP

Comcast Corp., the Philadelphia cable operator, sold $1.5 billion of 10- and 30-year bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It issued $700 million of 5.7 percent, 10-year notes that priced to yield 200 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries and $800 million of 6.55 percent, 30-year debt at the same spread, the data show. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. - Bloomberg News

A Florida union trust fund has sued Kenexa Corp. and two of its executives, saying the Wayne employment software company failed to disclose issues that eventually contributed to a decline in share price in 2007. In a statement, Kenexa denied all allegations, but said more suits may follow. The Pension-Annuity Trust Fund of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 630 in Florida seeks class action status in the federal lawsuit filed in Philadelphia last week against Kenexa, its chief executive Nooruddin Karsan and chief financial officer Donald Volk. The suit says executives misled investors with rosy reports until Nov. 7, 2007, when shares fell by two-fifths to $16.61 a share on news of problems with a major customer and with a strategic component of the business. - Jane M. Von Bergen

Exxon Mobil Corp. has been ordered to pay $507.5 million in punitive damages to Alaska natives, fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the massive 1989 oil spill off Alaska. The ruling by Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco affirms the figure set by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. It also awards interest payments at 5.9 percent to plaintiffs from the date of the original judgment in 1996. - AP

Foreign demand for long-term U.S. financial assets fell in April as both China and Japan trimmed their holdings of Treasury securities. The Treasury Department said that net purchases of stocks, notes and bonds obtained by foreigners fell to $11.2 billion in April, from $55.4 billion in March. - AP

The former top executive of American International Group Inc. plundered an AIG retirement program of billions of dollars because he was angry at being forced out of the company, a lawyer for AIG told jurors at the start of a civil trial. Attorney Theodore Wells told the jury in Manhattan that former AIG chief executive officer Maurice "Hank" Greenberg improperly took $4.3 billion in stock from the company in 2005, after he was ousted amid investigations of accounting irregularities. Greenberg, 84, has said through his lawyers that he had the right to sell the shares because they were owned by Starr International, a privately held company he controlled. - AP

A regional airline facing a $1.3 million fine for allegedly overworking its pilots and dispatchers says confusing records, not broken rules, are to blame for problems found by the Federal Aviation Administration. Gulfstream International Airlines Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., says it submitted a detailed response to the FAA that shows it followed regulations in "substantially all" of the examples cited in the civil penalty. It says it has changed record-keeping practices. Parent company Gulfstream International Group Inc. owns both the regional airline and a training center for commercial pilots. - AP

A Filene's Basement executive says discount retailer Syms Corp. and Vornado Realty Trust have won an auction for the discount chain. The price tag was $62.4 million, according to Alan Cohen, Filene's chief restructuring officer. Men's Wearhouse had been declared the buyer. But other bidders objected to the result last week and accused Men's Wearhouse of failing to meet the auction requirements. A judge directed Filene's last week to reopen the process. - AP

The Supreme Court won't stop the Federal Communications Commission from setting rules making it easier for new cable TV competitors to gain local franchises. The high court refused to hear an appeal from local governments saying the FCC had overstepped its authority. - AP

Six Flags Inc.'s Chapter 11 reorganization may take four to six months to complete, the amusement-park chain's chief financial officer said. "Our hope is that, and we believe it's feasible, that we'd be done with the process before the end of the calendar year," CFO Jeff Speed said in an interview. The owner of 20 theme parks filed a petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on June 13, listing assets of $3 billion and debt of $2.4 billion as of Dec. 31. - AP

Interest rates on six-month Treasury bills have fallen to the lowest level this year. The Treasury Department yesterday auctioned $30 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 0.290 percent, down from 0.345 percent last week. Another $31 billion in three-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.160 percent, down from 0.190 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 $9,995.96, while a six-month bill sold for $9,985.34. - AP

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, rose to 0.56 percent last week from 0.50 percent the previous week. - AP