Business news in brief

Viridity Energy, the Philadelphia smart-grid and energy optimization company, said Monday it had received a $15 million equity investment from Mitsui & Co. Ltd., the Japanese conglomerate. Viridity is giving Mitsui a 15 percent equity investment. Viridity, whose projects include a battery system to capture and reuse electricity from SEPTA subways, said the financing would support the development of distributed energy projects that feature storage as a significant component. The investment also includes a cooperative agreement to work with Viridity to deploy its proprietary software platform in Asia. The investment requires the approval of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
- Andrew Maykuth

Medical technology company CardioNet Inc., of Conshohocken, said it acquired CardioCORE Lab Inc. in a $23.5 million deal. CardioCORE is a cardiac testing laboratory with locations near Washington, San Francisco, and London. CardioNet said the transaction was expected to close in the third quarter. It said CardioCORE expected 2012 revenue of $19 million to $20 million. - Inquirer staff

Local labor leaders pledged to turn out 20,000 union members for the Workers Stand for America national rally to be held Saturday on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Local organizers expect the national gathering to attract 30,000 union leaders, politicians, and members from across the nation, with the intention of drawing attention to issues of middle-class and working-class people in advance of the national presidential conventions. The organizers will ask politicians to sign a "second bill of rights" calling for the rights to full employment, full participation in the electoral process, to organize into unions at work, and to obtain quality education, health care, a secure retirement and unemployment insurance. - Jane M. Von Bergen

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania said it approved $1.4 million in funding for seven early-stage companies. The companies are: ARB Geowell, West Conshohocken, $125,000; Brad's Raw Chips L.L.C., Pipersville, Bucks County, $100,000; Drakontas L.L.C., Glenside, Montgomery County, $250,000; Kerathin L.L.C., Chester, $200,000; OneTwoSee (previously Mobile Reactor L.L.C.), Devon, $150,000; S4 Worldwide L.L.C., Doylestown, $250,000; and Tangent Energy Solutions, Kennett Square, $300,000. Ben Franklin Technology Partners is an initiative of the Pennsylvania Department of Community of Economic Development and is funded by the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority. - Inquirer Staff

Apple Inc. said Google Inc.'s YouTube won't be included in the next version of the software used in the iPhone and iPad, the latest evidence of escalating competition between the companies. Apple has featured YouTube as a core application since the iPhone debuted in 2007. As Google has pushed into the smartphone market, the relationship between the companies has frayed. Google's Android software is now the world's largest operating system for smartphones, used by Apple's rivals including Samsung Electronics Co. Apple also plans to replace Google's maps application in the next iOS release with its own. Users will see the effects when the next version of Apple's mobile software, called iOS 6, is released later this year. A license expired that allowed the company to include YouTube, said Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman. As a result, the YouTube app won't come preinstalled on future iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch releases or if a user downloads iOS 6 to existing devices. "Customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser, and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store," Muller said. - Bloomberg News

HCA Holdings Inc. said the Justice Department wants information about heart procedures performed at some of its locations. The hospital operator also foreshadowed in an unusual posting on its website that the New York Times would run news stories on patient care at its hospitals. The Times declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press. - AP

The owner of British Airways and Spanish airline Iberia said it was considering taking a stake in American Airlines. "It is something we would consider," a spokeswoman for International Airlines Group said Monday, confirming remarks by CEO Willie Walsh reported earlier in the day by the Financial Times. Walsh said that a small stake in American could reinforce American's participation in the Oneworld alliance, which includes British Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines and Qantas. British Airways has a joint venture with American on North Atlantic flights. American Airlines is undergoing reorganization under U.S. bankruptcy law. The carrier has been in discussions with US Airways to combine. - AP

The government said it expects to receive $750 million more from the latest sale of stock held in American International Group. The sales are part of an effort to recoup taxpayer money from the largest bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The Treasury Department said the banks underwriting the sale have exercised their option to buy 24.6 million AIG shares at the offering price of $30.50 each. That brings the total from the fourth round of sales in AIG stock to $5.75 billion. The Treasury Department announced last week that it sold $5 billion in AIG stock. Treasury says it has received $23.3 billion from four sales of AIG stock. Treasury and the Federal Reserve stepped in with $182 billion to rescue New York-based AIG from collapse in September 2008. With the latest sale, AIG still owes taxpayers about $24 billion on the original investment, according to Treasury estimates. - AP