Business news in brief

Drug giant

Pfizer Inc.'s

agreement to acquire rival

Wyeth

would give two Wyeth directors seats on Pfizer's board and include hefty penalties aimed at preventing the deal from collapsing, according to a regulatory filing. The 86-page agreement states that Pfizer would be on the hook for $4.5 billion, while Wyeth would have to pay a breakup fee of $1.5 billion to $2 billion, depending on the timing and circumstances under which it terminated the deal.

- AP

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services

boosted one Philadelphia-area company and slammed another.

AmerisourceBergen Corp.

, a Malvern drug distributor, saw its rating raised to BBB+ from BBB with a stable outlook given the company's modest risk profile. The rating on small-business credit-card company

Advanta Corp.

, Spring House, was cut to B- from B+ on expectations that losses will mount this year.

- Harold Brubaker

Banco Santander SA

, Spain's biggest bank, completed its acquisition of

Sovereign Bancorp Inc.

All outstanding common stock was purchased, Philadelphia-based Sovereign said in a regulatory filing.

- Bloomberg News

Exelon Corp.

, the Chicago parent of Philadelphia's Peco Energy, continued its hostile attempt to take over

NRG Energy Inc.

, saying it would nominate nine directors for the Princeton company. Exelon, which offered $6.2 billion for NRG in October, also proposed increasing the number of seats on NRG's board from nine to 12. NRG rejected Exelon's bid as being too low and said that Exelon's proxy fight was an "attempt to compromise the independence of NRG's board" to force a sale that would dilute NRG shareholders.

- Harold Brubaker

GlaxoSmithKline PLC

said it had appointed former Eli Lilly & Co. executive

Deirdre Connelly

president of its North American pharmaceuticals business. She will be based in Philadelphia, and succeeds Chris Viehbacher, who left to join French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis as chief executive. Last year, Fortune Magazine named Connelly one of the country's most powerful businesswomen.

- Miriam Hill

GlaxoSmithKline

and

Genmab A/S

said they had submitted a biologic license application to the Food and Drug Administration for Arzerra to treat patients whose chronic lymphocytic leukemia resists other therapies. The companies said the disease affected more than 90,000 in the United States. Genmab is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

- Miriam Hill

Orleans Homebuilders Inc.

, Bensalem, said it received limited relief through next Friday from certain conditions of a lending agreement. The company said it breached a convenant by borrowing more than its available borrowing base.

- Harold Brubaker

Turkey Hill Dairy

, Lancaster, is recalling six ice cream and frozen-yogurt items because they could be contaminated with salmonella. The recalled Turkey Hill-brand products include: Tin Roof Sundae Premium Ice Cream; 1.5 quarts; UPC code 0-20735-11013-3. Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks Stuff'd; pint; UPC code 0-20735-42080-5. Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks Light Recipe Ice Cream; 1.5 quarts; UPC code 0-20735-12122-1. Nutty Caramel Caribou Frozen Yogurt; 1.5 quarts; UPC code 0-20735-12505-2. Peanut Brittle No Sugar Added Recipe Ice Cream; 1.5 quarts; UPC code: 0-20735-13506-8. Peanut Butter Mania Light Recipe Ice Cream; 1.5 quarts; UPC code 0-20735-12116-0.

- AP

People might never know whether the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial industry worked, according to a new report from congressional auditors. That's because it will be impossible to sort out which of the government's spending and other tinkering has made a difference, according to the report released by the

Government Accountability Office

. The report covers Treasury's administration of the bailout, called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, through Jan. 23.

- AP

Exxon Mobil Corp.

reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 percent from a year ago. The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company set in 2007. The extraordinary full-year profit wasn't a surprise given crude's triple-digit price for much of 2008, peaking near an unheard-of $150 a barrel in July. Since then, however, prices have fallen roughly 70 percent amid a deepening global economic crisis.

- AP

The

House

is expected to take a second run next week at a bill that would give consumers more time to prepare for the transition from analog to digital television broadcasts. If it passes, the bill heads to the president, who will sign it, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. House Republicans on Wednesday defeated the proposal to delay the analog TV cutoff - currently mandated to be Feb. 17 - to June 12.

- AP

Mortgage-finance company

Freddie Mac

said it would allow some borrowers to rent out their homes after losing them to foreclosure. The goal of the new policy is to prevent properties from becoming vacant so they won't fall into disrepair. Freddie Mac also said it would allow renters to remain in their homes even if their landlord enters foreclosure. The McLean, Va., company currently has about 8,500 properties in the foreclosure process, but many of those are vacant.

- AP

Heavy-equipment maker

Caterpillar Inc.

announced 2,110 more job cuts yesterday as it scales back production amid a world economic slowdown. The maker of mining and construction machinery said the layoffs at three Illinois plants - in Aurora, Decatur and East Peoria - and other cost-cutting measures were needed to maintain competitiveness. The layoffs added to 20,000 job cuts announced earlier this week.

- AP

Federal regulators closed three banks - one each in Utah, Florida and Maryland - bringing to six the total number of failures this year. The

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

was appointed receiver of the banks:

MagnetBank

of Salt Lake City,

Ocala National Bank

of Ocala, Fla., and

Suburban Federal Savings Bank

in Crofton, Md. Twenty-five U.S. banks failed last year, far more than the previous five years combined. The trio of failures announced yesterday matched the total for all of 2007.

- AP