Business news in brief

Airgas Inc.'s board of directors rejected the unsolicited $5.1 billion buyout offer from Allentown's Air Products & Chemicals Inc. "because it very significantly under-

values Airgas and its future prospects and is not in the best interests of Airgas stockholders," Airgas said. Separately, a judge in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court scheduled a hearing next Tuesday on Airgas' lawsuit attempting to force the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore L.L.P. to stop representing Air Products because of an alleged conflict of interest. The judge rejected a request for a temporary restraining order. - Harold Brubaker

Lincoln National Corp., a Radnor seller of life insurance and other financial products, plans to pay back $950 million in federal bailout money at the end of this year or early next year, depending on market conditions, chief executive officer Dennis Glass said on a fourth-quarter earnings conference call. During the quarter, Lincoln rebounded to an $84.1 million profit from a $505.5 million loss a year ago. - Harold Brubaker

Atlantic City's casinos have posted another decline in business. The city's 11 casinos won $294.2 million in January, a decrease of 8.5 percent from January a year ago. Slot machine revenue declined by 7.6 percent, while table game revenues decreased by 10.1 percent. Only two casinos posted increases in their January win. Showboat was up 4.4 percent, while Harrah's Marina showed a 2.8 percent increase. The Atlantic City Hilton and Trump Taj Mahal showed the biggest declines, at a 26.4 percent decrease and a 23.7 percent fall, respectively. - AP

Merck & Co. will pay $12.15 million in legal fees to settle suits over its Vioxx painkiller and will make corporate governance changes, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Merck has major operations in the Philadelphia area. - Bloomberg News

Vishay Intertechnology Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings of $28.5 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $652.3 million, or $3.50 a share, on increased demand. The Malvern chip- and components maker said revenues were $607 million, compared with $575.4 million, taking into account recast numbers for the prior period because of adoption of new accounting standards. Vishay forecast first-quarter sales of at least $630 million, topping the average analyst estimate of $595 million in a Bloomberg survey. Shares closed up 88 cents, or 10.9 percent, at $8.95. - Roslyn Rudolph

Malvern real estate investment trust Liberty Property Trust said it lost $52.1 million in the fourth quarter last year, compared with a profit of $52 million in the 2008 quarter. Net loss was 46 cents per share for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with net income of 53 cents a share a year earlier. It posted a noncash impairment charge of $94.5 million in the 2009 quarter related to investments in unconsolidated joint ventures and related goodwill. - Linda Loyd

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) tried to persuade the Federal Reserve to approve the acquisition of a New Jersey bank where the chairman and vice chairman were major contributors. The Fed did not act, and First BankAmericano, of Elizabeth, failed on July 31. The Wall Street Journal reports it's unusual for individual members of Congress to make such requests. The chairman of the bank when Menendez requested help was Joseph Ginarte. He had contributed $30,000 to the Democrat over the last decade. The bank's vice chairman was state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a power broker in the state Democratic Party. A Menendez spokesman says the language in the letter was an unintentional error and that making a specific request for action was a mistake. - AP

Government safety officials are recalling drop-side cribs sold at Buy Buy Baby, Kmart, Wal-Mart and other stores after the death of three infants. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says plastic hardware on Generation 2 Worldwide and ChildESIGNS cribs can break and allow the drop side to detach. Also, the mattress supports can break away from the crib frames. Both defects create gaps where a small child can be trapped and suffocate or strangle. The cribs were made by Generation 2 Worldwide, which went out of business in 2005. The commission is at www.cpsc.gov. - AP

Florida citrus growers lost more than 4 percent of their orange crop and more than 3 percent of their grapefruit crop during last month's freezing weather, according to estimates released yesterday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast put Florida's orange crop in February at 129 million boxes, down from the estimate of 135 million boxes in January. Each box weighs about 90 pounds. Growers were relieved the damage wasn't more extensive, given that Florida endured eight straight days of below-freezing temperatures last month. - AP

The U.S. Transportation Department says Delta Air Lines and US Airways, Philadelphia's dominant carrier, can swap takeoff and landing slots at airports in New York and Washington, but they must sell some of the slots to protect competition. A slot is an interval during which an airline can take off or land its aircraft at an airport. US Airways agreed in August to transfer 125 operating slot pairs to Delta at LaGuardia Airport in New York. In exchange, Delta agreed to transfer 42 operating slot pairs to US Airways at Reagan National Airport in Washington. - AP

Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson predicted the U.S. government would regain every penny given to the nation's banks during the economic meltdown and may even profit. Billionaire Warren Buffett agreed with Paulson yesterday that the bank bailout would eventually be profitable for the nation. The two men spoke at the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting. Buffett led the talk by asking Paulson about his new book, On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System. Buffett, the longtime Democrat, said Paulson's book gave him an appreciation of how well former President George W. Bush understood the economy and how the government reacted during the crisis. - AP