Business news in brief

Johnson & Johnson said it would buy the portion of Dutch vaccine-maker Crucell NV it doesn't already own for $2.3 billion, expanding in flu shots to bolster sales. J&J has major operations in the Philadelphia area. Crucell, of Leiden, Netherlands, will urge investors to sell stock to J&J, owner of an 18 percent stake, the companies said in a statement. J&J bought a stake in Crucell in September 2009, forming a partnership for flu shots and therapies eight months after Wyeth abandoned a deal with the Dutch company. - Bloomberg News

Delaware's unemployment rate rose by 0.1 of a percentage point in August to 9.6 percent of the labor force, the state's Department of Labor said. The rise occurred even though the number of unemployed people fell by 100. But the number with jobs dropped by 500. - Paul Schweizer

The federal government says it has raised $213.7 million from the sale of warrants it held in Lincoln National Corp., Radnor. It is the latest move to recoup costs for taxpayers from the $700 billion financial bailout. The Treasury Department said that it sold 13.05 million warrants at a price of $16.60 per warrant. The government had set a minimum bid price of $13.50 for the warrants, which give the purchaser the right to buy common stock at a fixed price. The government obtained the warrants when it provided $950 million to Lincoln National in July 2009. The company was one of several insurers receiving government support during the financial crisis. Lincoln paid the government back on June 30 of this year. The auction of the warrants will cut its final ties to the Troubled Asset Relief Program. - AP

Pepperidge Farm Inc. says it will cut the sodium levels in the majority its breads, rolls, and bagels by 2011, making it the latest of many food-makers to respond to demands for healthier products. The company, owned by Campbell Soup Co., Camden, said the reductions would ultimately result in sodium levels 10 to 33 percent lower in 69 of its U.S. bakery products. Health experts say Americans eat too much salt, and the vast majority is from processed food. Sodium can contribute to high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, or heart failure. - AP

Wayne A. Mugrauer has resigned as president and chief executive officer of the Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority after more than three years in the job. Mugrauer will become CEO of the Penn Foundation in Sellersville, which provides mental-health and retardation and substance-abuse services in Bucks and Montgomery Counties. The board of the Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority voted Tuesday to appoint board member James B. Baker Jr. to serve as interim CEO until a successor to Mugrauer is found. The authority provides low-interest, long-term, tax-exempt financing to nonprofit hospitals and secondary and higher-education facilities. - Diane Mastrull

Met-Pro Corp., Harleysville, said it received a $650,000 order from a U.S. automotive manufacturer to supply parts that will be used with a thermal oxidation system. The system eliminates organic solvent exhaust fumes. Met-Pro manufactures pollution-control and fluid-handling equipment. - Paul Schweizer

Spirit Airlines Inc., which flies to Atlantic City, filed for a $300 million initial public offering and said it planned to use some proceeds to repay debt. The company said it would retain $150 million in net proceeds from the IPO. As of June 30, Spirit had notes whose principal and accrued and unpaid interest was $263.7 million of debt, according to a filing. The Caribbean and Latin America are its main target growth markets, the filing said. Spirit said it serves 40 airports and generated revenue of $700 million in 2009. - Bloomberg News

Discover Financial Services agreed to buy Citigroup Inc.'s Student Loan Corp. in a deal valued at $600 million to become the third-biggest U.S. provider of private student loans. Legislation backed by the Obama administration eliminated private lenders from the federal student-loan program this year; students seeking government loans now must borrow directly from the Department of Education. They can still borrow privately through businesses such as Student Loan Corp., as well as SLM Corp., which is moving its headquarters to Delaware from Virginia, and No. 2 Wells Fargo & Co. SLM, known as Sallie Mae, will separately buy $28 billion of securitized federal student loans and related assets from Student Loan Corp., and Citigroup will keep $8.7 billion of federal and private loans, the companies said. - Bloomberg News

Americans' long journey to regain the wealth they lost in the recession is stalled. Households failed even to run in place during the April-June quarter as sinking stock prices eroded wealth. Stocks have since rebounded. But based on last quarter's data, household net worth would have to rise 23 percent to revisit its prerecession peak. Net worth - the value of assets like homes and investments, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards - fell 2.7 percent last quarter, or $1.5 trillion, the Federal Reserve said. That left net worth at $53.5 trillion. - AP

Federal regulators proposed rules that may make it harder for firms to mask debt after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was accused of misleading investors by temporarily moving assets off its books before collapsing in 2008. Securities and Exchange Commission members voted 5-0 to consider expanding what firms must disclose about short-term borrowing. Under the proposal, all companies would have to reveal in regulatory filings both the average and maximum amount of debt they had each quarter. The rules target what SEC Chair Mary Schapiro called "window dressing," where banks reduce borrowing at the end of quarters before releasing financial results. - Bloomberg News