Britain signs deal with EADS for tankers

Airbus parent EADS landed its second big government order in two months Thursday when Britain signed a contract to replace the Royal Air Force’s aging fleet of mid-air refueling tankers.

Airbus will provide the Royal Air Force with 14 new A330-200 passenger aircraft converted for military use under a 27-year contract between the EADS-led consortium AirTanker Ltd. and the Defense Ministry.

European Aeronautic Defence & Space NV was the junior partner in a consortium headed by U.S. defense company Northrop Grumman Corp. that was chosen over Boeing to supply the U.S. Air Force with 179 refueling aircraft for $35 billion.

EADS has also landed contracts for its A330-200 aircraft with the militaries of Australia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

•New data confirming slowing growth in Google Inc.‘s paid clicks renewed debate Thursday on Wall Street over whether the Internet search company’s revenue can quickly adjust to changes it made in how it generates clicks.

Citing data that comScore Inc. released after the market closed Wednesday, analysts said growth in Google’s click-through rate has nearly ground to a halt.

The click-through rate grew 3 percent in February compared to a year earlier, and January saw no increase compared to January 2007.

Several months earlier, the rate was growing 25 percent to 40 percent compared to a year earlier.

•Another former Starbucks employee is suing over the way the coffee chain store divides up tips.

Starbucks is already planning to appeal a California judge’s order that it pay $100 million in tips and interest because supervisors shared in the tips given to baristas.

Another state lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Massachusetts.

Now a Minnesota lawsuit accuses Starbucks of the same thing.

It says Starbucks broke a Minnesota law that prohibits employers from requiring employees to share tips.

The lawsuit claims that some of those who shared in the tips were supervisors.

Starbucks says its baristas and shift supervisors share tips because they all provide the same service to customers. They’re all hourly employees.

Starbucks says store managers do not get tips.