Business news in brief

Boyds, the high-end Center City clothier, said it plans to reopen Monday, a week after a fire triggered the sprinkler system, causing extensive water damage and temporary closure. The fire Monday in the fifth-floor tailor shop set off the sprinklers on the fourth and fifth floors, a spokeswoman said. The store at 1818 Chestnut St. required extensive cleanup. - Andrew Maykuth

Activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a new 12.1 percent stake in The Pep Boys-Manny Moe & Jack, a Philadelphia institution, and said the auto parts and maintenance chain's retail business should be acquired by Auto Plus, a competitor he controls. Icahn said Pep Boys' "retail automotive parts segment presents an excellent synergistic acquisition opportunity for Auto Plus, a leading automotive aftermarket company wholly owned by" Icahn Enterprises L.P., according to a 13D regulatory filing Friday. The move may put Icahn into competition with a unit of Bridgestone Corp., which agreed in October to buy Pep Boys for about $835 million to combine with its network of tire and automotive centers across the United States. The tender offer is set to expire Jan. 4. - Bloomberg News

Bernard Madoff's victims will have a bit more to spend on holiday gifts this year as the trustee unwinding his fraud begins sending out a total of $1.2 billion in recovered funds, with checks averaging $1.1 million each. The biggest payout to victims in more than three years comes a week before the anniversary of Madoff's Dec. 11, 2008, arrest, when thousands of retirees, charities, investment funds, and other clients discovered they'd lost $17.5 billion in principal to his decades-long Ponzi scheme. The distribution, which starts Friday, boosts victims' recoveries to $9.16 billion, or about 57 percent of the cash they lost, trustee Irving Picard said in a statement. Checks will range from $1,298 to $202 million, he said, and when the payout is complete, almost 1,300 victims will have recovered their investments. - Bloomberg News

Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to pay Apple Inc. the $548 million a court ordered, but that doesn't mean the companies have come to a final resolution of their long-running patent battle over smartphones. Samsung said in a court filing late Thursday that it was only paying the money because an appeals court refused to block a judgment ordering it to pay. - Bloomberg News