BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

Judge dismisses StreamCast suit

A federal judge has thrown out an antitrust lawsuit filed by the distributor of Morpheus file-sharing software against Internet phone service provider Skype Technologies SA, eBay Inc. and other defendants.

StreamCast Networks Inc. had sought more than $4.1 billion in unspecified damages and a court order blocking eBay from selling Skype services.

In her Jan. 18 ruling on a motion for dismissal, U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper concluded that StreamCast failed to make its case for relief under federal antitrust laws and dismissed all claims against Skype, eBay and more than a dozen other defendants.

Cooper declined to exercise discretionary jurisdiction to consider state law claims such as unfair competition and fraudulent transfer.

30 states, Bayer reach settlement

PITTSBURGH -- Thirty states, including California, have reached an $8 million settlement with Bayer Corp. over allegations the drug maker failed to adequately warn consumers about risks associated with a cholesterol-reducing drug.

The company allegedly learned after introducing Baycol in the U.S. in February 1998 that the drug posed significantly greater health risks than other similar drugs, particularly when taken in higher doses or in combination with another cholesterol-lowering drug, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett said in a statement Tuesday.

Bayer has not admitted any wrongdoing, but has agreed to register relevant clinical drug trials and drug studies and to post the results of those studies online.

D.R. Horton sees drop in earnings

FORT WORTH, Texas -- D.R. Horton Inc., the nation's largest home builder by deliveries, said Tuesday that earnings fell 64 percent in the last three months of 2006 as it wrote down the value of assets and forfeited land deposits and took fewer sales orders.

But the results still beat Wall Street's expectations, and Horton shares jumped $1.25, or 4.6 percent, to $28.38 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Horton reported that net income in the quarter ended Dec. 31 plummeted to $109.7 million, or 35 cents per share, from $310.1 million, or 98 cents per share, a year earlier.

The latest quarter included charges of $77.5 million, or 15 cents per share, to cover inventory write-downs and forfeited deposits on land options.

Home-building revenue edged higher to $2.84 billion, as Fort Worth-based Horton closed on 10,202 homes, up from 9,891 last year.

Murdock seeks Newsday stake

CHICAGO -- News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch has joined the Chandler family's bid for Tribune Co., according to a published report.

Murdoch is interested in a stake in the Tribune publication Newsday, one of the company's largest publications, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. He would like to combine New York-based Newsday's back office and operational functions with those at News Corp.'s New York Post, the Times reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the situation.