Spokane meter firm buying into Europe

Itron, the Spokane-based maker of electricity and water meters for utilities, agreed to acquire Europe's Actaris Metering Systems for about 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) to expand outside North America.

The purchase includes the retirement of about 445 million euros of debt, bringing the total transaction value to $1.6 billion, Itron said Sunday.

The purchase of Luxembourg-based Actaris will expand Itron's product offerings and increase its access to global markets for electricity, gas and water meters. The combination will add 20 to 30 cents to per-share profit in 2007 and more than double the company's revenues, Itron said.

The purchase, which is expected to close in the second quarter, reunites two former divisions of the Schlumberger group of companies.

BitTorrent

Web site to offer studio-licensed fare

BitTorrent, makers of a technology often used to trade pirated copies of Hollywood movies, is starting a Web site that will sell downloads of films and TV shows licensed from the studios.

The BitTorrent Entertainment Network was set to launch today with films from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, MGM and Lions Gate, and episodes of TV shows such as "24" and "Punk'd."

The service is aimed at young men and boys who regularly use BitTorrent to trade pirated versions of the same films and who more often watch such files on their computer instead of on a TV.

The San Francisco-based company is betting that at least one-third of the 135 million people who have downloaded its software will be willing to pay for high-quality legitimate content rather than take their chances with pirated fare.

TV episodes are $1.99 to download to own, typical for competitor sites such as Apple's iTunes. The new site will rent movies for a 24-hour viewing period for $3.99 for new titles and $2.99 for older films but has decided not to sell films for now because the prices demanded by the studios were too high.

Netflix

DVD deliveries hit 1 billion mark

Netflix delivered its 1 billionth DVD over the weekend, marking another milestone in the Internet rental service's evolution from a peculiar dot-com to a marquee attraction in millions of homes.

It took Netflix nearly 7 ½ years to mail out 1 billion DVDs, about seven months less than it took McDonald's to sell 1 billion hamburgers after opening in 1955.

To commemorate the occasion, Netflix is awarding a lifetime subscription to the Helotes, Texas, customer who received the milestone shipment. The movie was "Babel." Netflix has 6.3 million subscribers.

Tribune Co.

Board reportedly leans from Zell bid

The Tribune Co. board is considering an offer from real-estate magnate Sam Zell to take the company private but is leaning toward restructuring on its own, according to published reports.

Tribune, pressured by its long-slumping stock price, appointed a special committee in September to review prospective offers. The board intends to decide by the end of March.

The board would prefer a recapitalization plan involving a spinoff of Tribune's television stations and the payment of a bid dividend to shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday on its Web site.

Zell's proposal would involve buying the entire company with the participation of an employee stock-ownership plan, The New York Times reported for today's editions.

Gasoline

Refineries blamed for 13-cent price rise

U.S. gasoline at the pump rose 13 cents in the past two weeks to an average $2.35 a gallon after disruptions at several North American refineries, Trilby Lundberg said Sunday, citing her survey of 7,000 filling stations nationwide.

Compiled from Bloomberg News and The Associated Press