Business news in brief

Adelphia Communications Corp.

founder John Rigas and his son Timothy won an appeals court ruling that could lead to the dismissal of conspiracy charges in a second criminal case that could lengthen the prison terms they are serving. John Rigas, 84, is serving 12 years and Timothy Rigas, 53, 17 years for looting the former Pennsylvania cable company. After the men were convicted in 2004, U.S. prosecutors charged them with failing to pay taxes on $1.9 billion they stole. The Rigases asked a federal appeals court in Philadelphia to dismiss a conspiracy charge because the Constitution bars prosecution for the same crime twice. The court ordered a new hearing, where the government would have to prove the Rigases entered into two separate agreements. But the court refused to dismiss tax-evasion counts against the two.

- Bloomberg News

The

University City Science Center's

QED Program has awarded its first grants for life-science projects with high potential for commercialization. Each of the three winning teams will receive $100,000 from the science center and a $100,000 match from their employer. The grants are meant to speed commercial development of projects that fall into what Stephen Tang, president and chief executive officer of the center, called the funding "valley of death." They are beyond the basic research stage but not yet far enough along to interest most investors. The grants went to Wan Shih of

Drexel University

, who is developing a portable, radiation-free breast-cancer screening device; Paul Ducheyne of the

University of Pennsylvania

, who is working on nanostructured thin films meant to reduce bacterial infection; and Elisabeth Papazoglou of Drexel University, who is developing a handheld wound-healing monitor.

- Stacey Burling

Air Products & Chemicals Inc.

, which supplies oxygen and other gases to the industrial and medical sectors, said yesterday that fiscal fourth-quarter earnings declined as sales slipped in all business segments. Earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 declined to $243.9 million, or $1.13 a share, from $261.6 million, or $1.21 a share, last year. Income from continuing operations fell to $246 million, or $1.14 a share, from $273.4 million, or $1.26 a share. Revenue declined 22 percent to $2.13 billion from a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.12 a share and revenue of $2.1 billion.

- AP

SEI Investments Co.

said profit rose 53 percent as revenue declined for the quarter ended Sept. 30. The Oaks asset manager said profit rose to $52.7 million, or 27 cents a share, for the third quarter, from $34.5 million, or 18 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier. Revenue, meanwhile, fell 13 percent, to $275.9 million from the previous period's $316.1 million. The company said it spent $60.7 million last month to end a support agreement with a complicated financial entity that was used to money market funds. All its business segments had lower revenue for the latest quarter "primarily due to still-depressed capital markets," it said.

- Reid Kanaley

Dollar Financial Corp.

, Berwyn, said it paid $4.9 million for a British company that provides small retailers cash advances against a percentage of future credit card sales. Dollar said the acquired company, whose name was not disclosed for competitive reasons, had just $3 million in outstanding loans because of limited working capital. Dollar said it expected substantial growth in the next year.

- Harold Brubaker

Penn National Gaming Inc.

, Reading, operator of 19 casinos and racetracks, reduced its full-year sales forecast and reported third-quarter profit that missed analysts' estimates as consumers gambled less. Revenue for 2009 will be $2.39 billion, less than Penn's July projection of $2.46 billion. Net income will be $1.01 a share, lower than the $1.27 previously forecast. Net income for the three months ended Sept. 30 declined 85 percent to $21.4 million, or 20 cents a share, from $147.5 million, or $1.69 a share, a year earlier. Sales in the quarter were little changed at $620.4 million.

- Bloomberg News

JLG Industries Inc.

, a Fulton County manufacturer of mobile lifts that is recalling 650 laid-off workers and hiring an additional 30 as it expands into military truck manufacturing, won a $300,000 federal grant for retraining dislocated workers, Gov. Rendell announced.

- Inquirer staff

Shockingly poor financial management at the former

General Motors Corp.

and

Chrysler L.L.C.

weakened their case for a federal bailout, but officials feared letting them collapse, the former head of a government auto task force said. Steven Rattner said he was alarmed by the "stunningly poor management" at the Detroit companies and said GM had "perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company." The U.S. government now owns nearly 61 percent of GM and 8 percent of Chrysler.

- AP

Federal regulators are proposing tighter oversight of so-called dark pools, trading systems that do not publicly provide price quotes and compete with major stock exchanges. The

Securities and Exchange Commission

voted to propose new rules that would require more stock quotes in the dark-pool systems to be publicly displayed. The changes could be adopted after a 90-day public-comment period. The alternative trading systems, private networks matching buyers and sellers of large blocks of stocks, have grown explosively in recent years and now account for an estimated 7.2 percent of all share volume.

- AP

The average seven-day yield on taxable money market funds was 0.05 percent this week, unchanged from last week, according to

iMoneyNet Inc.

A seven-day yield is an annual yield that is based on the preceding seven days' level of income by the fund. The average yield on tax-free funds was 0.05 percent this week, also unchanged from last week.

- Paul Schweizer