Business news in brief

Campbell Soup Co. sold its California vegetable seed business to a French company, Vilmorin & Cie, the buyer said. The business, which is expected to generate $5 million in sales this year, includes tomato and pepper breeding operations at the Campbell's Vegetable Research Center in Davis, which was started in 1948. Nineteen Campbell's researchers will join Vilmorin's U.S. business, called Harris Moran, as part of the deal. Campbell spokesman Anthony Sanzio confirmed the sale. - Harold Brubaker

Rite Aid Corp., of Camp Hill, Pa., reported lower revenues and a smaller net loss for the quarter ended Sept. 1. The operator of 4,643 drug stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia said its net loss was $38.8 million, or 5 cents per share, for the second quarter, compared with a net loss of $92.3 million, or 11 cents per share, for the same quarter ended Aug. 27, 2011. Revenues were $6.2 billion, down from $6.3 billion. The company lowered its estimated sales for fiscal year 2013, citing the negative impact of new generic drugs on pharmacy same-store sales and continued pressure on insurance reimbursement rates. - Mike Armstrong

Parties in the dispute between shipping companies and dock workers at ports along the East Coast, including those in Philadelphia and Wilmington, have agreed to extend their collective bargaining agreement for 90 days. The longshoremen's contract was due to expire Sept. 30. George H. Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said that the parties had agreed to extend their current agreement until Dec. 29. Cohen says the parties are doing so "for the good of the country" to avoid a disruption of commerce. Some retailers had already begun rerouting ships in anticipation of a possible strike. - AP

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey said it will open the state's first health insurance retail center in Moorestown's East Gate Square Shopping Center on Friday. The center will have staff trained to help customers with their health insurance needs and to assist them in purchasing health insurance products and services. Horizon Connect will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, the company said. - Harold Brubaker

Reality returned to the oil market this week. Oil has fallen 7 percent since last Friday, when the price briefly topped $100 for the first time in four months. On Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude steadied, slipping just 11 cents to finish at $91.87 per barrel. Oil is sliding because demand is growing slower than expected. The weeklong sharp drop was expected and overdue, many analysts say. "It was hope versus reality," said Judith Dwarkin, chief energy economist at ITG Investment Research. "It was inevitable." - AP

Exxon Mobil Corp. will spend $1.6 billion to boost its holdings in the massive Bakken oil field in North Dakota and Montana by 50 percent. Exxon said it will buy all of the Bakken shale assets held by Denbury Resources Inc. for $1.6 billion in cash. Denbury will also receive Exxon's interest in two fields in Wyoming and Texas. Oil production in the Bakken has soared in recent years, recently passing 600,000 barrels per day, or about 10 percent of total U.S. production. - AP

The share price of Trulia Inc., operator of a residential-property listings website, climbed 41 percent in its trading debut after pricing the shares above the proposed range in an initial public offering. The San Francisco-based company raised $102 million for itself and existing shareholders, selling six million shares for $17 each. Trulia shares rose $7 to close at $24. The shares of Trulia's larger competitor Zillow Inc. have more than doubled since a July 2011 IPO. Zillow shares closed at $46.17, up 62 cents. - Bloomberg News

British Sky Broadcasting is a "fit and proper" company to hold an operating license, U.K. regulators said in response to the phone hacking scandal that engulfed the parent company. But they criticized the former CEO and chairman, James Murdoch, for poor management. The company's license was called into question because of the scandal at a newspaper owned by News Corp., which effectively controls BSkyB through a 39 percent ownership stake. If the company had not been found "fit and proper," it could have been stripped of the license that yielded a net profit of $1.4 billion in the year ending June 30. - AP

U.S. state- and local-government debt rose during the second quarter for the first time since 2010 as borrowing costs held near a half-century low. The debt grew at an annual rate of 0.8 percent from April through June, according to data released by the Federal Reserve. The increase follows five straight quarters of declines as states and cities paid down debts. - Bloomberg News

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., the operator of more than 1,000 home-furnishing stores, dropped nearly 10 percent after reporting second-quarter profit that trailed analysts' estimates. Net income fell 2.2 percent to $224.3 million from $229.4 million a year earlier, the Union, N.J.-based company said. Earnings per share rose to 98 cents from 93 cents a year earlier, but missed analysts' expectations of $1.02 per share. Bed Bath & Beyond has been resorting to discount coupons to drive traffic, cutting into profit margins, according to Brian Nagel, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Bed Bath & Beyond shares closed at $62.08, down $6.71. - Bloomberg News

America's biggest corporations dipped into their flush cash reserves to reward shareholders by spending more to buy back their stock in the second quarter. Share repurchases by companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index totaled nearly $112 billion from April through June, S&P Dow Jones Indices said. That's up about one-third from $84 billion in the first three months of the year. Stock repurchases benefit investors by increasing the value of the remaining shares. - AP