Business news in brief

PPL Corp. on Monday announced offerings of common stock and equity units to finance part of the $7.6 billion acquisition of E. ON U.S. L.L.C., the parent company of Louisville Gas & Electric Co. and Kentucky Utilities Co. PPL, Allentown, is offering 90 million shares of its common stock and $1 billion of equity units, which represent a contract to buy notes that will be converted to common stock no later than July 1, 2013. - Andrew Maykuth

Liberty Media Corp., which owns the QVC home-shopping channel in West Chester, said it would spin off two of its units into a newly created publicly traded company, to be called Newco. QVC will remain with Liberty Media, Englewood, Colo. One unit to go into Newco is Liberty Starz, which operates cable TV channels and Internet businesses and includes Liberty's interest in Starz Entertainment. The other is Liberty Capital, which has interests in entertainment and broadcast services, publishing, electronics, the Atlanta Braves baseball club, and Sirius XM Radio Inc. Liberty Media said the spin-off would enable it to more easily raise capital and to use its stock to buy other companies. - Paul Schweizer

In a preliminary proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in advance of its annual meeting, Airgas Inc., Radnor, recommended that its shareholders vote against an unwanted bid from Air Products & Chemicals Inc., located near Allentown. Airgas, which employees 14,000, described Air Product's $5.1 billion, or $60 a share, bid as "a grossly inadequate price." On June 1, Air Products extended the deadline for its tender offer to Aug. 13 from June 4. No date was set for the Airgas meeting. - Jane M. Von Bergen

Mortgage broker Frank J. Dattilo, 64, owner of Provident Financial Group in Bensalem, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. Between January 2004 and 2007, Dattilo, of Holland, created false documents making borrowers appear more creditworthy than they were, inducing banks to fund mortgages. At settlement, Dattilo would present borrowers with a sheet that included unexpected costs and fees. When they couldn't pay, he'd draft a second, hidden mortgage to cover the costs. Sometimes borrowers couldn't pay both mortgages and the property would go into foreclosure. Dattilo's two codefendants, employees Michael Giello and Jason Megow, have already pleaded guilty to similar charges. Each faces up to 60 years in prison and a $2 million fine for restitution. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8. - Jane M. Von Bergen

The Russell 3000 stock index will add three Philadelphia-area companies as of June 28: Entercom Communications Corp., Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Marlin Business Services Corp. The index also will delete five local companies: Adolor Corp., Discovery Laboratories Inc., Hemispherx Biopharma Inc., Nobel Learning Communities Inc., and Republic First Bancorp. The index is composed of 3,000 large U.S. companies, based on market capitalization. - Paul Schweizer

Federal regulators adopted a plan to ensure that banks' pay policies don't encourage employees to take reckless gambles like those that contributed to the recent financial crisis. The plan, originally proposed by the Federal Reserve last year, was also endorsed by other key banking regulators - the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. The regulators won't actually set compensation. Instead, they would review - and could veto - pay policies that could cause too much risk-taking by executives, traders, or loan officers. - AP

House and Senate lawmakers have tentatively agreed on how to regulate fees that banks charge merchants who accept payment with debit cards. Under the deal, the Federal Reserve would not limit fees on transactions involving debit cards issued by the federal or state governments. Governments use debit cards for programs such as unemployment or child-support payments. Several state treasurers argued that restricting fees paid by merchants could force banks to increase charges for the cards to states. The deal also allows the Fed, which would write fee regulations, to consider costs that banks incur for preventing fraudulent use of the cards. The agreement is part of broader legislation to regulate financial institutions. - AP

Barnes & Noble cut the price on its original Nook electronic reader, undercutting its chief competitor, Amazon.com's Kindle, and will also offer a lower-price Nook with a WiFi connection. The bookseller said the Nook WiFi is available now for $149 online at nook.com and bestbuy.com. The company is lowering the price for its original Nook, which has both 3G and WiFi, from $259 to $199. That's less than the $259 Kindle sold by Amazon.com. Bookstore chain Borders Group Inc. is offering a Kobo reader that works with Borders' online bookstore for $149.99. Borders also sells other e-readers. - AP

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction. The Treasury Department auctioned $27 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.115 percent, up from 0.065 percent last week. Another $27 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.170 percent, up from 0.150 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 $9,997.09 while a six-month bill sold for $9,991.41. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.117 percent for the three-month bills and 0.173 percent for the six-month bills. - AP

The Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 0.30 percent last week from 0.33 percent the previous week. - AP