Syngenta honors 25th anniversary

DURHAM -- Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. celebrated its 25th year in Durham's Research Triangle Park recently.

The company, which focuses on crop genetics research and discovery, opened its doors in 1984 and has since expanded into nearly 200,000 square feet of laboratories, offices and greenhouses.

The facility is the key North American location for plant gene technology research for Syngenta, and employs more than 400 workers, the company said.

Syngenta is growing its biotechnology research and development operations both in North Carolina and globally. In the past month, SBI has leased 100,000 more square feet of space and signed an agreement to purchase an additional 50 acres of land for potential future expansion.

"RTP has been a great place for SBI to grow and flourish over the years," said SBI president and global head of biotechnology R&D Michiel van Lookeren Campagne. "The employment applicant pool is top-notch and the scientific community is active and thriving, making the area a prime location for potential expansion of our facilities and continued generation of industry-leading ideas."

Canada approves Nortel aqcusition

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., AND DURHAM -- Telephone and computer software company Avaya Inc. said Friday that Canada's minister of industry approved its acquisition of the Enterprise Solutions unit of Nortel Networks Corp.

Avaya agreed in September to buy Nortel Enterprise Solutions for $900 million, with an additional $15 million for an employee retention program. There are about 1,800 workers left at Nortel's facilities in Durham's Research Triangle Park, where there is a substantial presence of workers in the Enterprise business

The transaction has now been approved by governments in the U.S., Canada and European Union.

The privately held New Jersey-based company plans to close on the deal this month.

Nortel, based in Toronto, has been selling its operations piece by piece since filing for creditor protection in January.

At its peak, the company employed 8,500 workers in RTP.

Crude drops, gas holding steady

Crude prices have trended lower for more than a month and grew even cheaper Monday, which might lead some to believe prices at the pump would follow along.

That's not necessarily been the case so far.

Demand for gasoline, jet fuel and diesel is edging only slightly, but not enough for refiners to make much money so they've been cutting production to avoid losses.

Several refineries have completely shut down and while imports have helped push inventories of gasoline higher, gas prices have remained relatively flat during crude's swoon.

At about $2.63, a gallon now costs about 90 cents more than it did last year at this time when prices were in free fall.

-- From staff and wire reports