Business news in brief

Hospital operator Tenet Healthcare Corp. says it is adopting a poison-pill stock-distribution measure as it tries to fight off a $3 billion takeover bid by Community Health Systems Inc. Tenet is the parent of Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. If there is a change in Tenet's ownership, shareholders who own less than 4.9 percent of the company's stock will get the right to buy one additional share for every share they own. The Dallas company says the measure will take effect Jan. 17. - AP

A federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit against former members of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board over their rejection of a Donald Trump company's effort to obtain a Philadelphia casino license. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that members of the oversight board are entitled to absolute, quasijudicial immunity, dismissing the case brought by Keystone Redevelopment Partners L.L.C. Keystone had said the 2006 board decision favored local interests at the expense of out-of-town interests because it was based on concerns that Keystone's casinos in Atlantic City might benefit, the court wrote. The two-judge majority opinion, which overturned a district judge's decision, said Gaming Control Board members could not make decisions without fear of intimidation if they were not immune from personal liability. - AP

Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc., Chadds Ford, said federal regulators rejected a formulation of its painkiller Opana ER designed to prevent tampering and abuse. No additional clinical studies are required and Endo has begun discussions with the Food and Drug Administration over its decision about the crush-resistant drug, Endo said in a statement. Makers of 24 extended-release pain pills were ordered by the FDA in February 2009 to help devise a plan to minimize the risks of the products while ensuring patients kept access to the medicines. Endo expects to satisfy the FDA's concerns and file its application by mid-2011 for the drug's approval, Ivan Gergel, Endo's executive vice president for research and development, said in Endo's statement. - Bloomberg News

A federal judge has ruled that the software-maker SAP AG is entitled to a new trial over what it owes Versata Software Inc. in a patent case, Bloomberg News reported. SAP, based in Germany but with its Americas headquarters in Newtown Square, Delaware County, had been ordered to pay $138.6 million, based on a formula for awarding damages that has since been ruled incorrect, the news service said. "We are encouraged by the action and our attorneys are currently reviewing the filing," Andy Kendzie, an SAP spokesman, said in a statement to Bloomberg regarding the case, being heard in U.S. District Court in eastern Texas. - Roslyn Rudolph

Chief Gathering L.L.C., Dallas, was fined $34,000 for illegally discharging 25,000 gallons of hydrostatic testing water at a natural gas pipeline project in Penn Township, Lycoming County, in August. The state Department of Environmental Protection said Chief also agreed to surrender its discharge permit. Hydrostatic tests involve placing water in a pipeline before it starts operating to determine that there are no leaks. The discharge was reported to DEP by the company. The fine goes into the Clean Water Fund, which helps pay for cleanups in Pennsylvania. - Paul Schweizer

Sunrise at Floral Vale, a 48-bed facility in Yardley for memory-impaired residents, was bought by a California health-care investment firm for $4.5 million. The buyer, Cornerstone Healthcare Plus Real Estate Investment Trust, Irvine, Calif., said the Bucks County operation would be renamed River's Edge of Yardley. The seller was Sunrise Senior Living Inc., McLean, Va., which operates more than 300 senior communities. - Paul Schweizer

AstraZeneca P.L.C. said the Food and Drug Administration would take three more months to review the British company's application for vandetanib, a drug it is developing as a treatment for a rare type of thyroid cancer. The company has operations near Wilmington. AstraZeneca said that it had submitted a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy at the FDA's request and that the agency needed the extra time to review it. The FDA has extended its review completion date from Jan. 7 to April 7. - AP

The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 43.2 million in October as the jobless rate stayed near a 27-year high, the government said. Recipients of the subsidies for food purchases jumped 15 percent from a year earlier and increased 0.7 percent from September, the Department of Agriculture said in a statement. Participation has set records for 23 straight months. An average of 43.3 million people will get food stamps each month in the year that began Oct. 1, according to White House estimates. - Bloomberg News

Federal banking regulators shuttered two lenders, one each in Florida and Arizona, as the banking crisis enters its fourth year. First Southern Bancorp, Boca Raton, bought First Commercial Bank of Florida, Orlando, while St. Louis-based Enterprise Bank & Trust bought Legacy Bank, Scottsdale, Ariz., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said on its website. The closures cost the FDIC's deposit-insurance fund $105.9 million. More than 320 banks have failed since the start of 2008. - Bloomberg News

U.S. airlines must inspect 683 Boeing Co. 757 planes for cracks after a hole opened on an American Airlines plane Oct. 26, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a directive to be published Jan. 10. The 1-by-2-foot hole in the 757-200 plane opened at 31,000 feet, causing loss of pressure and forcing an emergency landing in Miami, the FAA has said. The inspections are also prompted by a crack discovered Sept. 11 on a United Airlines 757 plane, said an FAA spokesman. No decompression of the aircraft resulted from the crack, he said. - Bloomberg News

Washington Mutual Inc.'s proposal to end its bankruptcy and pay creditors more than $7 billion was rejected by the judge overseeing the bankruptcy of the company, the former owner of the biggest U.S. bank to fail. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mary F. Walrath in Wilmington rejected the plan because it guaranteed protection from lawsuits for too many parties. Walrath said she agreed with the central feature of the plan. Evan Flaschen, an attorney for bondholders who had initially opposed the plan, predicted that WaMu could easily change the proposal and win Walrath's approval. - Bloomberg News