BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

Teva's version of Zocor gets OK

NEW YORK -- Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. won final regulatory clearance to market its generic version of cholesterol medication Zocor after a federal judge threw out a motion from a rival company.

The Israeli company has already started shipping its versions of the four different dose strengths it has been approved to sell. Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. won approval to sell the highest dosage of the pill, which isn't commonly prescribed.

Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by another generic manufacturer, Sandoz Inc., to block the FDA from approving generic forms of Zocor made by Teva or Ranbaxy. The denial of the motion cannot be appealed.

Merck & Co.'s Zocor lost patent protection Friday. It generated $4.4 billion last year.

SEC begins probe of Home Depot

WASHINGTON -- The Home Depot Inc. disclosed Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an informal inquiry into its practices for granting stock options.

The disclosure by the nation's largest home-improvement chain came a week after it said its own review had turned up five instances of options having been awarded to executives at below-market prices. In three of the five instances, the market price of company stock on the award date was higher than that on the date the exercise price was determined.

In all five, the company's board of directors approved the options grants retroactively. Home Depot's internal review also found about $10 million in unrecorded stock option expenses.

The Atlanta-based company disclosed the SEC inquiry in a regulatory filing Friday.

EPL to purchase Stone Energy

NEW ORLEANS -- Independent petroleum producer Energy Partners Ltd. said Friday that it has agreed to acquire Stone Energy Corp. for $1.4 billion, thwarting a competing bid from Plains Exploration & Production Co.

New Orleans-based EPL will acquire all of Lafayette, La.-based Stone Energy stock for cash and stock at the option of the shareholder, the companies said in a joint statement.

Stone Energy shareholders will be able to choose between receiving $51 in cash per share or a certain number of EPL shares, but EPL is paying at most $723 million in cash. Assuming half of the shares are sold for cash, the offer is worth $48.25 per share based on EPL's Thursday closing stock price of $18.02 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The price is an 18 percent premium to Stone Energy's closing stock price May 24, the day before the offer was announced.

The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter if shareholders of both companies approve, also includes EPL taking over $800 million of Stone Energy debt.

AMD chip facility set for New York

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which was offered about $1 billion in state incentives, will build a multibillion-dollar chip manufacturing plant in upstate New York, creating 2,000 permanent jobs, state and company officials said Friday.

AMD chose to locate the new plant on a 600-acre site in Malta, about 25 miles north of Albany, after considering bids from East Asia and Germany, state officials said.

``The Hudson Valley is going to be America's next Silicon Valley and we're well on our way to achieving that,'' Gov. George Pataki said.

Pataki said the state and company would invest $3.2 billion initially and up to $5 billion over the next couple of years.

The state is providing about $1 billion in incentives including grants for construction and equipment, tax credits and other Empire Zone benefits, according to a legislative aide familiar with the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal wasn't to be announced until later Friday.