Briefcase

Texas Instruments to buy National Semiconductor

SAN FRANCISCO – Texas Instruments says it is buying fellow chipmaker National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion in cash in a move to expand its share of the market for analog chips, which are used in a wide range of electronics.

Texas Instruments Inc., based in Dallas, has agreed to pay $25 per share for Santa Clara, Calif.-based National Semiconductor Corp. That marks a 78 percent premium to that stock’s closing stock price Monday before the deal was announced.

Associated Press

Wind turbine No. 1 gets built

Puget Sound Energy erected its first wind-power turbine last week in southeast Washington’s Garfield County, where the utility is building its 343-megawatt Lower Snake River Wind Project.

Siemens Energy is supplying the turbines. When all 149 turbines are erected and operating in spring 2012, the facility will be PSE’s largest wind farm and one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest – generating enough electricity to serve up to 100,000 homes. Final assembly of the first turbine had been delayed for a week by high winds, gusting at times above 70 mph.

PSE and its lead contractor, RES Americas – together with Siemens Energy and various subcontractors – started building the wind farm last year.

Becky Kramer

Blockbuster auction starts

NEW YORK – Blockbuster Inc. mulled bids from Carl Icahn and others in an auction process that began Monday in New York that will decide the fate of the troubled video-rental chain.

Potential bidders, lenders and Blockbuster representatives met in several rooms at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York on Monday. A sign on one room said it was reserved for Carl Icahn’s Icahn Acquisition Corp. The billionaire investor did not return a call seeking comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported liquidation firms Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Merchant Resources submitted a joint bid for some of Blockbuster’s assets including its DVDs.

Blockbuster and its assets, including its name, kiosks and movie-download service, might be purchased together or separately. The stores and their DVDs could be liquidated, while others keep the name or the kiosk video-rental business, for example.

Associated Press

Expedia, airline end dispute

NEW YORK – American Airlines and online travel company Expedia on Monday put an end to their 3-month-old dispute, reaching an agreement that returns the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline’s flights to Expedia and Hotwire.

American and Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia Inc. announced the agreement in a joint statement but did not disclose the terms.

Associated Press