Business news in brief

Mace Security International Inc., the Horsham company best known for its namesake defensive pepper spray, said it sold its Linkstar Corp. e-commerce division for $1.1 million. The buyer is Silverback Network Inc., a Harrisburg online marketer, according to a Mace filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Linkstar, which sells lines of cosmetics, nonprescription remedies, and pet-care supplements, accounted for about a third of Mace's 2009 revenue of $28.2 million. Mace, which has reported successive years of losses and a sinking stock price, is attempting to rebalance its business by selling non-core assets, including its online marketing division and its chain of car washes. -Andrew Maykuth

Philadelphia Gas Works said it will drop natural gas rates for the next three months, saving the average residential heating customer about $14.69 per month. The municipal gas utility will lower its residential gas-supply charge from $1.60 per hundred cubic feet to $1.50 on Wednesday. The charge for commercial and institutional customers will also be reduced. -Andrew Maykuth

Teleflex Inc., Limerick, said it is selling a unit that makes equipment for military and commercial aircraft as it continues its move to concentrate on the core medical-supply business. Aircraft parts supplier TransDigm Group Inc., Cleveland, will buy the business for about $94 million in cash. TransDigm said the operation is expected to generate about $25 million in revenue in 2010. -Roslyn Rudolph

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., Britain's biggest drugmaker, said it will increase research and manufacturing investments by more than $777 million in its home country if the government lowers the tax rate on profits generated from British-owned intellectual property. George Osborne, the country's chancellor of the exchequer, proposed the reduced corporate tax rate as part of a package of planned changes to lure multinational companies to Britain. The company has major operations in the Philadelphia area. - Bloomberg News

Moody's Investors Service said in a report it doubts that proposed changes - including smaller casinos, Internet gambling and sports betting - will end Atlantic City's four-year slump. The credit-rating company said that rather than invigorate the market by adding new investment, allowing casinos with as few as 200 hotel rooms would cannibalize existing properties like the Borgata, Harrah's and the Trump casinos. -AP

The Vanguard Group reopened its Capital Value Fund after a cooling-off period that began in October 2009. The move was prompted by concern that investors were chasing the mutual fund's short-term past performance. In 2009, its total return was 81 percent compared with 26 percent for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The fund, with $703 million in assets, has posted a gain of 18 percent over the last 12 months, still better than the 11 percent return from the S&P 500. - Harold Brubaker

Fox Rothschild L.L.P., the Philadelphia law firm, said it is opening an office in Washington and adding three attorneys who will focus on international transactions, import-export regulation, and government contracting law. Two of the lawyers will be based in Washington, and the third will be in Philadelphia. -Chris Mondics

Wolters Kluwer Health, Philadelphia, said it agreed to buy Pharmacy OneSource, a Bellevue, Wash., software provider, for an undisclosed price. Pharmacy OneSource, which has 100 employees, helps hospitals manage issues related to patient safety, efficiency and regulatory compliance. Wolters Kluwer, a provider of health-care information, said the acquisition will extend its reach into the hospital pharmacy market. -Paul Schweizer

Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan is conducting a criminal investigation related to trading on Wall Street. Holder declined to say whether the investigation involves hedge funds and allegations of insider trading, as news reports have suggested. But he said the probe is "very serious" and is ongoing. A week ago, the FBI searched the offices of three hedge funds as part of what outside experts said could become one of the largest investigations in Wall Street history. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan has been leading a crackdown on what he said recently was "rampant" insider trading on Wall Street. -AP

Congress approved a one-month delay - to Jan. 1 - on a 23 percent reduction in doctors' Medicare pay rates to buy time for U.S. lawmakers seeking to hold off future cuts. Medicare, the federal health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, has cost control formulas that demand the rate cuts. -Bloomberg News

The Treasury Department auctioned $29 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.175 percent, up from 0.140 percent last week. An additional $28 billion in six-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.210 percent, up from 0.195 percent last week. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,995.58 while a six-month bill sold for $9,989.38. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.178 percent for the three-month bills and 0.213 percent for the six-month bills. -AP

The Federal Reserve said the average yield in the secondary market for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, was unchanged at 0.27 percent last week, the same as the previous week. -AP

German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it will launch the world's first passenger flight using biofuel, starting in April. An Airbus A321 aircraft on daily flights between Hamburg and Frankfurt will be powered with a biofuel blend made from 50 percent vegetable oil. The flights will continue for six months in a government-backed study on the long-term impact of biofuels on aircraft performance. -AP