Business news in brief

Urban Outfitters Inc., the Philadelphia retailer, said net income for the quarter ended Jan. 31 more than doubled from the same period a year earlier - to $82.5 million, or 56 cents per share. Combined sales at the company's stores - Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People, Terrain and Urban Outfitters - was up 17 percent, to $856.8 million for the quarter, compared with $730.6 million in the prior-year quarter. While sales at stores open at least a year were flat, the company said comparable sales including online operations increased 11 percent. For the 12 months ended Jan. 31, the company opened 49 new stores, including 18 Urban Outfitters, 15 Free People, 14 Anthropologie, one BHLDN and one Terrain garden center. It also closed two Anthropologie stores. The results were released after markets closed. Urban shares had risen 19 cents, to close at $41.50. - Reid Kanaley

Two South Jersey home care companies merged last month to form Home to Stay L.L.C., a Cherry Hill firm with 150 employees and 125 clients, the company said. Assisted Living at Home, the larger company, with 80 clients, bought Home to Stay Health Care Solutions for an undisclosed amount. The deal was completed on Feb. 17. Home to Stay serves the elderly and the disabled in Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Ocean, Mercer, Atlantic and Cape May Counties, the company said. - Harold Brubaker

New York's health commissioner said he won't wait for completion of any of the pending gas drilling studies and plans a recommendation "in weeks" on whether the state should approve hydraulic fracturing. Health Commissioner Nirav Shah said he would not wait for the final results, which could be years away. Instead, he said, state officials will talk to at least some of the researchers about their findings. Shah says he met with researchers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Geisinger Health in Pennsylvania within the last two weeks. Geisinger plans preliminary results within a year. It is studying the health records of individuals living near Pennsylvania gas wells from before and after hydrofracking started. - AP

Battered shares of vodka maker Central European Distribution Corp., rose 5 cents, or 12.5 percent, to close at 45 cents after the Mount Laurel-based company announced a new debt swap offer. The shares are down about 80 percent this year. The new debt offer reflects terms agreed by CEDC's biggest shareholder Roust Trading Ltd. and a committee of holders of 30 percent of the company's 2016 notes. The plan would give Roust 85 percent of CEDC equity and require other holdings to be reduced to 5 percent. Investor Mark Kaufman, who backed another restructuring plan and has criticized CEDC management, sold about 3.5 million shares last week, cutting his stake below 5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and a filing. - Bloomberg News

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is fighting Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell's plan to take the struggling company private, has entered a confidentiality agreement that would give him access to the computer maker's financial records. Michael Dell, who is also Dell's CEO, plans a $24.4 billion buyout that would make the Round Rock, Texas, company a privately owned business. The deal offers shareholders $13.65 for each Dell share. Icahn says that price is too low. He wants the company to pay a special dividend of $9 per share if shareholders reject the offer and keep their stake in the company, which would remain publicly traded. - AP

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. will launch its new touchscreen smartphone in the United States with AT&T Inc. on March 22. The release will come several weeks after RIM launched the much-delayed devices elsewhere. AT&T said the Z10 will be available for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Sales of the device began in the United Kingdom and Canada shortly after RIM unveiled the phone in late January. RIM has said U.S. carriers needed more time to test the devices. The redesigned BlackBerry is RIM's attempt at a comeback after the pioneering brand lost its cachet not long after Apple Inc.'s 2007 release of the iPhone. - AP

Alibaba Group, of China, one of the world's biggest e-commerce companies, said its executive vice president will succeed founder Jack Ma as chief executive. Ma, 48, announced in January he was stepping down as CEO to make way for younger leaders. He stayed on as chairman. Jonathan Lu Zhaoxi, a 13-year veteran of the company, will take over in May as CEO, said the company, based in the eastern city of Hangzhou. - AP

The European Union banned the sale of new cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals. Animal rights groups were quick to cheer the measure, but Cosmetics Europe, a trade body representing the EU's $93 billion industry, said the ban "acts as a brake on innovation." While the industry's rabbits, mice, or guinea pigs used in testing will now be spared, consumers are unlikely to notice immediate changes because products containing ingredients that were tested on animals before the ban can remain on the shelves. - AP

General Electric Co. said its chairman and chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, received a compensation package valued at nearly $20.6 million for 2012 - 80 percent more than his pay in 2011. - AP