Business news in brief

Drug distributor Cardinal Health Inc. and medical products distributor Owens & Minor Inc. were sued by a Pottsville, Pa., health system for allegedly monopolizing the sutures market. The companies' dominance in the U.S. markets for sutures and endomechanical products led to artificially inflated prices, lawyers for Schuylkill Health System said in the complaint, filed in federal court in Philadelphia. Schuylkill Health, which operates two hospitals, is seeking to represent all direct purchasers of sutures and endo products. Cardinal, of Dublin, Ohio, declined comment. A spokeswoman for Owens & Minor, based in Mechanicsville, Va., did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. - Bloomberg News

The 43-year-old locomotive that once hauled coal to Exelon's Cromby Generating Station in Phoenixville is getting a new life. Exelon Power is donating Locomotive 7706, valued at $140,000, to the West Chester Railroad, a nonprofit that preserves and operates vintage trains in Chester County. Exelon had used the former Conrail locomotive since the 1990s to pull coal hoppers to the power plant, which was retired at the end of 2011 and is undergoing decommissioning. The nonprofit plans to take two years to restore the locomotive's exterior and repaint it with West Chester Railroad insignia. - Andrew Maykuth

Aviation supplier Triumph Group Inc., of Berwyn, said it acquired Embee Inc., a metal finishing provider to the aerospace industry, in a deal that will add about $50 million in annual revenue to Triumph. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Embee, of Santa Ana, Calif., employs 400 and will operate as Triumph Processing-Embee Division Inc., Triumph said. Triumph has about $3.6 billion in annual revenue. Its shares rose 10 cents, to $66.05. - Reid Kanaley

Reuters reported that GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., which has a large presence in Philadelphia, agreed to pay $150 million in a preliminary settlement with a group of drug wholesalers who said Glaxo had improperly delayed the introduction of generic versions of its Flonase nasal spray. Citing court documents, Reuters said AmerisourceBergen Corp., of Chesterbrook, was among the companies that claimed Glaxo misused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's citizen's petition process to block the generic competition. The case was in federal court in Philadelphia. - Inquirer staff

The U.S. Labor Department said it obtained a default judgment allowing distribution of $155,000 in retirement funds to five former employees of a defunct Montgomeryville company. In a complaint in federal court in Philadelphia, the department said Surplus Asset Sales Co. ceased operations in 2009 without appointing an administrator for its 401(k) plan. - Inquirer staff

Commercial real estate owner Liberty Property Trust, of Malvern, said that so far in the fourth quarter, it had closed on the acquisition of 19 industrial buildings totaling three million square feet for $155 million. The acquisitions consist of 12 properties in Tampa, Fla.; two buildings in suburban Chicago; three properties in Charlotte, N.C.; and two buildings in Shakopee, Minn. The properties are 96 percent leased, Liberty said. - Inquirer staff

New online child privacy rules from the Federal Trade Commission will keep anonymous advertisers and marketers from siphoning personal information about preteens but some software developers said the cost of complying with the regulations and the risk of violating them will cause many responsible businesses to abandon the children's marketplace. Information about children that cannot be collected unless a parent first gives permission now includes the location data that a cellphone generates, as well as photos, videos, and audio files containing a human image or voice, according to the new rules. - AP

A group including Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd. agreed to buy patents from bankrupt Eastman Kodak Co. for about $525 million, gaining the right to use the digital technology to capture and share photos. The group is led by Intellectual Ventures Management L.L.C. and RPX Corp., Kodak said. Google, Apple, and RIM are among the 12 companies that will license the patents in the deal, according to a court filing. - AP

Internet advertising hit a new high in the third quarter as marketers continued to shift money from print and broadcasting. The $9.3 billion spent on Internet ads from July through September is an 18 percent increase from $7.8 billion at the same time last year, according to a breakdown released by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Internet Advertising Bureau. - AP

Swiss bank UBS agreed to pay $1.5 billion in fines for trying to manipulate a key interest rate that affects borrowers around the world. The settlement with U.S., British, and Swiss regulators caps a tough year for the company and the reputation of the global banking industry. The fine on UBS, which will also see two former traders charged with conspiracy, is triple the amount that British bank Barclays P.L.C. agreed to pay in June to settle similar charges. And it comes a week after HSBC agreed to pay nearly $2 billion to settle allegations of laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and countries under U.S. embargoes, such as Iran. UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, said some of its employees tried to rig the LIBOR rate in several currencies. - AP