Business news in brief

GSI Commerce Inc.

, King of Prussia, said it was buying

Retail Convergence Inc.

for up to $350 million. Retail Convergence is a Boston operator of SmartBargains.com, an off-price electronic commerce marketplace, and RueLaLa.com, which sells clothing and other merchandise during private online sales. The purchase price consists of $180 million at closing and up to $170 million more based on future earnings of the Retail Convergence businesses.

- Paul Schweizer

Ametek Inc.

, Paoli, said its third-quarter profit fell 39 percent on lower demand for its electric motor and aircraft monitoring equipment. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income dropped to $43 million, or 40 cents a share, from $70.9 million, or 66 cents a share. Excluding restructuring costs, adjusted earnings were 42 cents a share. Revenue fell 23 percent, to $497.1 million from $647.4 million.

- AP

Vishay Intertechnology Inc.

reported net revenue of $525 million, down almost 29 percent from $739 million in last year's comparable quarter, but net earnings of $2.3 million against a net loss a year earlier of $301 million. The 2008 loss was attributable to declines in noncash items as well as restructuring and severance costs. The Malvern chip-maker posted earnings of 1 cent a share over a loss of $1.62 a share a year earlier. It also said it planned to spin off its measurements and foil-resistor businesses into an independent publicly traded company called Vishay Precision Group Inc.

- Roslyn Rudolph

A

Wilmington Trust Corp.

unit joined forces with

Beneficial Bank

of Philadelphia to lend $26 million to build a 123,500-square-foot building in downtown West Chester, Wilmington Trust said. Chester County has signed a 20-year lease for the six-story building, the lender said. It is being developed by

Free Range Associates II L.P.

, Downingtown.

- Harold Brubaker

Gov. Rendell announced the recipients of $8 million in grants to local and regional groups to promote tourism. Among the local winners were the

Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau

, which received $1.1 million;

Philadelphia and the Countryside

, which received $900,000 to market the five counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania; the

Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau

, $148,294; and the

Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau

, $106,633. The grants have been given out annually by the state Tourism Office since 1961. This year's amount was the lowest in 15 years because of the state budget deficit, said state Deputy Secretary of Tourism Mickey Rowley.

- Suzette Parmley

Unisys Corp.

, Blue Bell, said a joint venture of the company was awarded contract extensions worth $500 million from three British-based banks. The venture, Intelligent Processing Solutions Ltd., signed separate five-year deals with

Lloyds TSB Group P.L.C.

,

Barclays P.L.C.,

and

HSBC Holdings P.L.C.

Intelligent Processing was formed in 2000, and it provides check- and credit-clearing services and other processing functions for major banks in the United Kingdom. Lloyds, Barclays, and HSBC are partners with Unisys in the venture but signed the contracts as its customers. Unisys, an information-technology company, is the majority shareholder.

- Paul Schweizer

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.

received

Food and Drug Administration

approval for its drug Arzerra to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a slowly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Glaxo has major operations in the Philadelphia area. The FDA said in a statement that the approval applies to patients who have already received other forms of chemotherapy that no longer control the condition. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia primarily affects people older than 50.

- AP

Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co.

is buying a flood-insurance business from

Delta Lloyds Insurance Co.

, Houston, the two companies said. As of Nov. 1, Harleysville will take over Delta's book of Write Your Own flood insurance, which is part of the federal government's National Flood Insurance program, and allows insurance companies to earn fees for selling flood insurance while the federal government retains responsibility for underwriting losses. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Delta wrote $13.5 million in direct flood premiums last year. The corresponding figure for Harleysville was $82.6 million.

- Harold Brubaker

The

House Financial Services Committee

voted to regulate for the first time hedge funds and other large pools of privately managed capital. The bill, which received broad bipartisan support in a 67-1 vote, was aimed at shedding light on an elite group of investors who have so far escaped government oversight despite their hefty portfolios.

- AP

U.S. taxpayers spent about $32 subsidizing the cost of the typical

Amtrak

passenger in 2008, says a private study by Subsidyscope, an arm of the

Pew Charitable Trusts

. Stephen Van Beek, president of the Eno Transportation Foundation, a think tank, said the analysis could help guide decisions on how to spend $8 billion set aside for high-speed and intercity rail in the economic-stimulus bill. The Northeast Corridor's high-speed Acela Express made a profit of about $41 a passenger. The more heavily used Northeast Regional lost almost $5 per passenger.

- AP

The Obama administration has agreed to reconsider a rule that allows long-haul truckers to drive for up to 11 hours straight without rest. The

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

told safety advocates it would revise the rule, which became final in the waning days of the Bush administration.

- AP

Consumers' confidence in the U.S. economy fell unexpectedly in October as job prospects remained bleak, the

Conference Board

said. The private research group's Consumer Confidence Index sank to 47.7 in October, its second-lowest level since May, from 53.4 in September. A reading below 80 signals a weak economy. In the Middle Atlantic states - Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York - the index fell to 46.1 this month from 49.8 in September.

- Paul Schweizer