Business news in brief

Advanta Corp., the Spring House credit-card issuer that froze its nearly one million small-business accounts after posting three consecutive quarterly losses due to defaults, posted a fourth loss - of $330.1 million, or $8.14 per share - for the latest quarter ended June 30. That compared with a $4.0 million profit for the same three months a year ago. Advanta said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its "ability to continue as a going concern may depend on our ability to develop and successfully implement a plan for new business opportunities and become profitable in the future." Advanta last month said it was cutting its workforce by half, leaving it with fewer than 200 employees. Shares closed down 3 cents, or 5.77 percent, to 49 cents. - Reid Kanaley

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., the bankrupt Atlantic City casino company Donald Trump is seeking to buy back, reported a $443.1 million second-quarter loss after writing down the value of its assets. The net loss was $13.97 a share, compared with a loss of $29.8 million, or 94 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. It booked a $556.7 million charge as it wrote down the value of some casinos and their trademarks. Revenue slid 16 percent to $195.1 million from $231.6 million. - Bloomberg News

PSEG Power L.L.C., a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., said it had commenced an exchange offer for holders of 8.5 percent PSEG Energy Holdings notes due 2011. The company is offering to exchange the $495 million in outstanding notes for a new issue of PSEG Power senior notes due 2016. The new notes will bear interest at a rate to be determined on Aug. 21. For each $1,000 in notes tendered, PSEG is offering $1,070, which is made up of $802.50 in principal of the new notes, a cash payment of $237.50 and a $30 "early participation" payment to holders who respond by Aug. 20. Most of the notes are held by institutional investors. Public Service Enterprise Group is the parent company of New Jersey's largest utility, Public Service Electric & Gas Co. - Andrew Maykuth

Inovio Biomedical Corp. will collaborate with the National Institutes of Health on influenza vaccines. The San Diego drug developer, which entered the Philadelphia market when it took over Blue Bell's VGX Pharmaceuticals Inc. in June, says it has a research-collaboration agreement with the NIH's Vaccine Research Center to work on a universal flu vaccine as well as a vaccine for the H1N1 swine flu. - Roslyn Rudolph

K-Tron International Inc., Pitman, said second-quarter earnings were $5.26 million, or $1.82 a share, on revenues of $50.03 million, down 27 percent compared with earnings of $7.16 million, or $2.49 a share, on revenues of $60.21 million in the comparable quarter last year. The company, which owns a number of operations that make conveyors and other material-handling equipment for industries, noted that currency rates had hurt this year's second-quarter revenues by about 2 percentage points. - Roslyn Rudolph

Treventis Corp., Bryn Mawr, received a $550,000 seed-stage investment to help it develop drugs to treat early-stage Alzheimer's disease. The emerging life-sciences company received the money from BioAdvance, the Biotechnology Greenhouse Corp. of Southeastern Pennsylvania, which gets its money from the state of Pennsylvania as part of the federal tobacco settlement. Treventis, which employs eight people and has research operations in Nova Scotia, also is working on a diagnostics test for Alzheimer's. - Miriam Hill and Roslyn Rudolph

Shares of Freddie Mac, the mortgage-

finance company under government control, more than doubled after the company posted its first profit in two years and it said it won't need more U.S. Treasury aid "at this time." Freddie Mac rose 95 cents, or 128 percent, to close at $1.69. The company reported Aug. 7 that it had net income of $768 million in the second quarter. - Bloomberg News

Despite signs that the financial system has stabilized, banks remain threatened by billions of dollars of bad loans on their balance sheets, and more could fail if the economy worsens, a congressional watchdog reports. In its latest assessment of the $700 billion financial-system bailout, the Congressional Oversight Panel warns that banks still hold many risky loans of uncertain value. If unemployment rises sharply or the commercial real estate market collapses - as many economists fear - the banking system could again lose its footing, the panel says in a report to be released today. - AP

U.S. refineries bought millions of dollars' worth of oil siphoned from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border - in some cases by drug cartels expanding their reach. At least one U.S. oil executive has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy that involved what prosecutors said was about $2 million in stolen Mexican oil, U.S. Justice Department officials confirmed to the Associated Press. Today, the U.S. Homeland Security Department is scheduled to hand over $2.4 million to Mexico's tax administration, the first batch of money seized during a joint investigation into smuggled oil that authorities expect to lead to more arrests and seizures. - AP

Southwest Airlines is making a firm bid to buy Frontier Airlines out of bankruptcy protection. That sets up an auction today with regional airline operator Republic Airways Holdings Inc. Southwest is the second-busiest airline flying out of Philadelphia International Airport, transporting 12 percent of the passengers. Frontier has less than 1 percent of market share. A bankruptcy judge had already approved the sale of Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. to Republic for $108.8 million. But the process left the door open for other bidders. Denver-based Frontier has been operating under Chapter 11 protection since April 2008. - AP