United sues owner of complaint website United Continental Holdings Inc. sued a Canadian professor who maintains the 15-year-old complaint website Untied.com, which airs complaints from disgruntled United Airlines passengers and employees. Two suits filed in Canadian courts allege the complaint site violates the airline's copyright and trademarks. United said it is not trying to shut down the site but instead is trying to protect its intellectual property, such as its logo, and trying to alleviate confusion by United customers who might think they are filing a complaint with the airline on Untied.com.

NCR deal beefs up its supermarket presence NCR Corp., a supplier of automated teller machines and payment systems, agreed to buy Retalix Ltd. for about $650 million, gaining software and services used in supermarkets. Retalix investors will receive $30 a share in cash, Duluth, Ga.-based NCR said. That's 37 percent more than Retalix's closing price of $21.90 on Tuesday. Shares had risen 35 percent Wednesday on reports of the sale. Software from Retalix, used in more than 70,000 retail locations in more than 50 countries, will help the U.S. company expand the tools it offers corporate customers in industries such as finance, travel and hospitality, NCR said.

Europeans approve Spanish bank bailouts The European Commission approved a payment of 37 billion euros ($48 billion) from the eurozone bailout fund to four Spanish banks on the condition that they lay off thousands of employees and close offices as part of their restructuring. Some of the biggest job cuts were expected to be made by Bankia, the giant lender whose collapse and request for 19 billion euros of additional capital last May forced Madrid a month later to negotiate a banking bailout of up to 100 billion euros. The funds approved Wednesday are part of that negotiated amount and will be disbursed from the European Stability Mechanism, the bailout fund for the eurozone.

Wells Fargo: SEC probe ends with no action Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender, said federal regulators don't plan to recommend any enforcement action after completing a probe of offering documents for mortgage-backed securities. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission notified San Francisco-based Wells Fargo on Nov. 20 that the previously announced probe was over, according to a regulatory filing by the bank.

Disney boosts dividend ahead of tax changes Walt Disney Co., the world's largest entertainment company, raised its annual dividend by 25 percent, joining other companies boosting their payouts ahead of an expected increase in tax rates. The 75-cent-a-share payment will be made on Dec. 28 to shareholders as of Dec. 10, the Burbank, Calif.-based company said. The previous 60-cent annual dividend was paid to investors in January. The move protects Disney investors from a possible increase in the dividend tax rate, which is set to rise as high as 39.6 percent from 15 percent with the year-end expiration of Bush-era tax cuts.

Shares of Russia's MegaFon drop in debut Investors balked at the initial public offering of MegaFon, Russia's second-largest cellphone operator, as the company's shares fell Wednesday in the first day of trading. The new listing, which is the largest Russian IPO since the aluminum maker Rusal raised $2.2 billion in 2010, comes at a difficult time for European financial markets. MegaFon, whose majority owner is Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia's richest men, had priced its stock at $20 a share, the bottom of the expected price range. By the close of trading Wednesday, the company's shares, which are jointly traded in Moscow and London, fell 2 percent, to $19.60.

Siemens to buy Invensys rail unit for $2.78B Siemens AG, the German maker of high-speed trains, agreed to buy Invensys PLC's rail unit for 1.74 billion pounds ($2.78 billion) in the company's largest purchase in half a decade to bolster its signaling subsidiary. The companies plan to complete the transaction in the second quarter, pending approval from Invensys shareholders and regulatory backing, Invensys said. Invensys jumped 27 percent, the most in more than a year.

FROM NEWS SERVICES