Early Briefing: Another Departure

*BioVeris, AstraZeneca and Digene were all bought in 2007. And now another change in Maryland's biotech industry: Celera, founded to map the human genome, said it will move its headquarters to Northern California. About 30 employees will remain in Rockville. See story

*Maryland sued Constellation Energy in attempt to force it to keep giving electricity customers credits on their bills that will amount to almost $400 million over 10 years. See story

*A federal judge has blocked Metro from selling a 2.2-acre piece of land at M and Half streets SE, across from the new Nationals' stadium, to Akridge because of a dispute with Monument Realty. See story

*Citadel Broadcasting fired Chris Core, the longest-running personality on Washington radio. See story

*Sallie Mae said it had received a subpoena from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for information related to its direct-to-consumer Tuition Answer loans. The Reston firm said it would cooperate. The company said in a regulatory filing that it had $3.3 billion in Tuition Answer loans outstanding as of Dec. 31.
Separately, Sallie Mae, the biggest U.S. educational lender, completed arrangements for $31.3 billion in new 364-day financing that will help it to continue making student loans.

*IBM is protesting a contract FBI awarded to Lockheed Martin for a biometrics database. Lockheed Martin, of Bethesda, which built and maintains the bureau's 10-fingerprint database, was chosen to build the Next Generation Identification system. The contract could be worth almost $1 billion.

*Sirius Satellite Radio said it extended until May 1 its offer to buy larger rival XM Satellite Holdings of the District.

*Wattles Capital Management proposed the ouster of the entire corporate board of Circuit City Stores just days after nominating five members to the 12-member board. Wattles holds a 6.5 percent stake in the company. The company said it would review the requests.

By Terri Rupar  |  March 1, 2008; 5:00 AM ET  | Category:  Morning Brief
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