Business news in brief

German business-software-maker

SAP AG

says its fourth-quarter revenue dropped about 9 percent, better than it was expecting. The Walldorf, Germany, company, which has operations in Newtown Square, said in a statement that its fourth-quarter revenue was 3.18 billion euros ($4.61 billion) compared with 3.49 billion euros in 2008. SAP says revenue from software dropped about 16 percent to 1.11 billion euros from 1.32 billion euros in 2008, and that the overall operating profit margin was 32.8 percent, down 4 percentage points. The company said that the figures beat its own guidance and that it would release further details of the 2009 results and an outlook for the full-year 2010 on Jan. 27.

- AP

The Pennsylvania attorney general is suing a recently closed computer-training school in an effort to recover fees for former students. Attorney General Tom Corbett said he sought restitution and a prohibition against

ComputerTraining.com

operating in Pennsylvania. It closed last month. The lawsuit says the company ran training and certification programs at facilities in Bensalem, King of Prussia, Lancaster, and Pittsburgh. Those entities are also defendants. Corbett says the schools should have known they were taking money but probably were not going to be able to provide services. The company's Web site includes a message about being shut down and provides the phone numbers of educational regulators in various states.

- AP

Jefferies & Co. Inc.

slightly lowered its earnings estimates for

Exelon Corp.

yesterday after New Jersey recommended the company install a costly cooling tower at its Oyster Creek nuclear plant. The

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

issued a draft water-discharge permit last week recommending a cooling tower, which would lower the temperature of the water discharged into Barnegat Bay. Exelon has said it will shut down the power plant rather than invest $700 million to $800 million in a cooling tower. Exelon says it could take up to eight years to resolve the regulatory issue.

- Andrew Maykuth

Howard Schweitzer

, the former chief operating officer of the government's financial-industry bailout agency, has joined the Washington office of

Cozen O'Connor

. Schweitzer was chief operating officer of the

Troubled Asset Relief Program

from October 2008 until August of last year. Before joining TARP, Schweitzer held various leadership positions at the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The firm said he would focus his legal practice on public law, public-private partnerships, international business transactions, government contracts, and corporate compliance.

- Chris Mondics

Cadbury P.L.C

., the British confectioner fighting a takeover offer from

Kraft Foods Inc.

, said

Hershey Co.

remained interested in Cadbury and would transform itself into a global business by trumping Kraft's bid. "In recent times, they have reaffirmed their interest," Cadbury chairman Roger Carr said in a conference call when asked about Hershey's intentions. "From our point of view, we would help facilitate that in the way that we would help anyone, but we await an offer. There is no formal bid and may not be."

- Bloomberg News

Abington Bancorp Inc.

, Jenkintown, said it would repurchase 5 percent, or about one million, of its outstanding shares. The bank completed one repurchase plan this month, taking 1.1 million shares off the market. Abington has $1.23 million in assets and $817.7 million in deposits. The bank's shares closed at $6.89, up 6 cents, on Nasdaq.

- Harold Brubaker

Starting Tuesday,

Delta Air Lines Inc.

flights and former

Northwest Airlines

flights at

Philadelphia International Airport

will check in at Terminal E. Delta, which merged with Northwest in 2008, said in an e-mail message that its blue and red signage would replace Northwest signage at airport check-in and ticketing locations, gates, and baggage-claim areas. The Delta Sky Club for frequent fliers, now in Terminal A-East, will close Tuesday. The airline said fliers with a current membership card and photo ID may use US Airways Clubs, between Concourses B and C and on Concourse F, until Delta opens a new club in the spring.

- Linda Loyd

Intel Corp.

says its fourth-quarter profit ballooned as the personal-computer market blasted back from the recession. Computer shipments grew more sharply than expected in the quarter, and Intel supplies the vast majority of PC microprocessors. That helped Intel deliver net income of 40 cents a share, compared with 4 cents a year earlier. Sales climbed 29 percent to $10.6 billion. Analysts expected a profit of 30 cents a share and $10.2 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Intel is the first major technology company to report its results, which are seen as a barometer for the PC market and technology spending in general.

- AP

Rates for 30-year home loans edged lower for the second straight week, a report said, but remained above last month's record lows. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.06 percent this week, down from 5.09 percent a week earlier, mortgage company

Freddie Mac

said. Rates dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent in early December. Rates on one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 4.39 percent this week from 4.31 percent.

- AP

American Airlines, a unit of

AMR Corp.

, said that for the next month, it will not allow passengers traveling to several cities in the Dominican Republic to check excess, oversize, or overweight bags. The airline said that it was considering the needs of all passengers and that there were limits to how much baggage it could carry in cabins, but it did not state a reason for the decision. The Caribbean region was rocked by a powerful earthquake and aftershocks this week. Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, was hit hardest. The 30-day bag limit applies to flights to Santo Domingo, Santiago, and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.

- AP