After listening to its consultants, the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System board in Harrisburg today agreed today to stay the course with its investment program, which is heavy on private equity, hedge fund, commodity, derivative and foreign investments.
  The board voted to put up to $105 million in three investment funds -- $15 million more in Lightspeed Venture Partners VIII, L.P., of Menlo Park, Calif.; $40 million in distressed-debt investor Sankaty Credit Opportunities IV, L.P., Boston; and $50 million in private equity manager TPG Partners VI, L.P., Fort Worth; plus up to $25 million in a first-time investment with Senior Housing Partner IV, LP, managed by Prudential Real Estate Investors.

  U.S. companies are spending less to buy back their own shares, Boenning & Scattergood research head James Still says.
  Instead of the buybacks companies used to prop up share prices during the late stock market boom, companies are hoarding cash as a hedge against recession, and to fund bargain takeovers of recession-stricken competitors. See the report here.

  TimeWarner shares rose on claims institutional shareholders want the company to spin off its cable TV franchise, the nation's second-largest. Bloomberg story here.
  Comcast, the No. 1 cable company, is a likely buyer, if it can get past FCC Chairman Kenneth Martin and his allies, who don't want Comcast getting too much bigger. Comcast-TimeWarner would be the largest buyer of TV programming, with even bigger pricing clout vs. ESPN and other networks.

  The Becattini family's TowerStar Corp. has sold its Bagel Factory restaurants in Berwyn, Wayne, Bryn Mawr, Springfield and Center City to Sun Capital Partners Inc.'s Vermont-based bagel chain, Bruegger's, for an undisclosed price. 
  Fernando Becattini Jr. said his father, a University of Alabama research scientist turned medical equipment dealer, invested with a partner in the first restaurant, in Berwyn, 19 years ago, but the deal quickly went sour and he became a proprietor to protect his investment. 
  The Bryn Mawr store became a Villanova student hangout; the Berwyn store is a landmark in a town known more for its wealthy population than its modest retail district.
  Sun Capital also owns Boston Market Inc. and Friendly's Ice Cream. Beccattini said the local stores will keep their name. TowerStar will concentrate on its hotel properties, including local Marriott Courtyards and Residence Inns.
  
  

  UPDATED: Honeywell International has agreed to pay $720 million to Francisco Partners and Elliott Associates for Metrologic Instruments Inc., a Blackwood, N.J. company that sells data devices and software.
  Francisco bought Metrologic for $385 million in late 2006, Metrologic spokesman Mike Coluzzi said today. Elliott was a shareholder before that deal, and retained its interest under Francisco.
  The company employs 300 in the Philadelphia area, where "it remains business as usual," as buyer and seller prepare to sign their deal, Coluzzi added.
  Honeywell statement here.

  Fameco Real Estate, Plymouth Meeting, has taken over as leasing rep for 800,000 square feet of space on five blocks of 69th Street in Upper Darby, replacing owner Askenazy Acquisitions, New York, in the work of luring businesses that cater to the 10 million commuters who change trains, buses and trolleys at the neighboring Septa terminal.
  Once the western suburbs' premier shopping district, the strip, now anchored by a Sears and a Marshall's, has long been eclipsed by suburban Delaware County malls. Fameco's Jay Miller is working to fill vacancies in second-floor and smaller retail properties, including health-professional offices and for-profit schools for adults.
  They aren't planning a big overhaul. "It’s about building off the density and the foot traffic that’s in the area," said Miller. "We're trying to complement the retail that’s in place today." Among the tenants Fameco says it's landed: a 42,000 square foot campus of the Harris School of Business, over the Conway department store at Ludlow St. "They'll have 800 students when it's up and running," said Miller. "We see that as an anchor that will draw business throughout the center."