In brief: Facebook, Yahoo reach patent deal

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook and Yahoo have agreed to settle a patent dispute, averting a potentially lengthy battle over the technology running two of the Internet’s most popular destinations.

In dropping the lawsuits, the companies agreed Friday to license their patents to each other. They are also agreeing to an advertising alliance that expands their existing partnership.

The advertising alliance could help Yahoo recover some of the revenue that it has been losing as marketers shift more of their spending to a larger and more engaged audience on Facebook’s online social network.

Friday’s settlement involves no exchange of money and comes after a monthslong patent squabble between the two Internet icons.

Yahoo filed the patent lawsuit in March, wielding it as a weapon against a company that then-CEO Scott Thompson believed had been prospering from the ideas of its older rival. The complaint alleged that Facebook infringed on Yahoo patents covering Internet advertising, privacy controls and social networks.

Britain launches Barclays fraud probe

LONDON – Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said Friday that it has formally opened a criminal investigation of the manipulation of a key market interest rate that has shaken Barclays.

The bank was fined $435 million last week by U.S. and British agencies for making false reports of its borrowing costs between 2005 and 2009, specifically of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, which influences the costs of a range of financial instruments including home mortgages.

Regulators are known to be looking into similar allegations against other banks in Britain and elsewhere, but Barclays is the only bank so far to have been publicly shamed. The Serious Fraud Office announcement did not mention Barclays by name but referred to “the LIBOR matter.”

The agency said it was uncertain whether the investigation would result in charges.

Best Buy turnaround includes 2,400 layoffs

NEW YORK – Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. is laying off 600 staffers in its Geek Squad technical support division and 1,800 other store workers as it seeks to restructure operations and improve results, the company said Friday.

The cuts amount to about 1.4 percent of the company’s total staff of 167,000.

Best Buy is trying to combat the “showrooming” of its stores, as consumers test out products at its stores but go home and buy them cheaper online or at discounters.

Best Buy spokesman Bruce Hight said the layoffs are part of the company’s “ongoing turnaround plan.”