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Business news in brief

In the Region

Hill to close share sale

Shares of engineering firm Hill International Inc., of Marlton, fell 13.3 percent after the company said it priced an underwritten offering of 8.5 million shares at $4.25 per share - for a total of about $36.13 million - and will close the offering next week. The company will keep $10 million of the net proceeds in cash and use the rest for other obligations, including to pay debt. Shares on the New York Stock Exchange fell 64 cents to close at $4.17. - Reid Kanaley

MeetMe raises $11.5 million

Social network operator MeetMe Inc., of New Hope, said it raised $11.5 million in a sale of 5.75 million shares at $2 per share. Net proceeds of $10.5 million will go to general working capital, MeetMe said. Company officials will ring the opening bell at the Nasdaq market on Tuesday. Shares closed down 6.4 percent, or 15 cents, at $2.21. - Reid Kanaley

Elsewhere

Profit boffo for Buffett

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said second-quarter profit rose 41 percent to a record on investments, including a gain tied to the exit of most of his stake in the former publisher of the Washington Post. Net income climbed to $6.4 billion, or $3,889 a share, from $4.54 billion, or $2,763, a year earlier, the Omaha-based company said.. - Bloomberg News

A boost for high-speed rail

California's proposed high-speed-rail project got a big boost from a state appeals court panel that approved the project's funding plan. The three-judge panel of the Third District Court of Appeal on Thursday overturned a lower-court decision and cleared the way for the state to sell bonds to help pay for the $68 billion rail line that is to carry bullet trains between San Francisco and Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes. The rail line is scheduled to be built in stages, starting in Fresno, with the complete route intended to be operating by 2029. Court hearings are still pending environmental and routing challenges by opponents. - Paul Nussbaum

Aereo: Stop the 'bleeding'

Aereo Inc. asked a judge to grant it new life to operate like a cable-TV service and stop the "bleeding" after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the streaming-video company violated broadcasters' copyrights. The company hasn't been able to make money since halting operations June 28, according to a federal court filing in Manhattan. After the Supreme Court ruled Aereo violated copyrights by transmitting live and recorded broadcast programming from an antenna via the Internet, the company said it could instead operate like a cable-TV provider. - Bloomberg News