Raytheon wins $679m radar upgrade contract

Raytheon Co. won an order from the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration worth up to $679 million to upgrade radar systems at military and civilian airfields worldwide. The Waltham-based defense contractor will provide 116 fully operational Digital Airport Surveillance Radar systems to replace analog radar, first fielded almost 30 years ago, with a digital system, the Pentagon said on its website. (Bloomberg)

Users of IBM Corp.'s popular Lotus Notes business collaboration software can now log on with Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The Lotus business unit, based in Cambridge, has developed an application called iNotes Ultralite, which will let Notes users check their e-mail, calendar, and contacts list over the iPhone. The iNotes Ultralite software can be downloaded free of charge through Apple's iTunes App Store. The iPhone already features support for Lotus Notes chief rival, Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange collaboration software. (Hiawatha Bray)

Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray is indefinitely postponing next week's scheduled trade mission to Ireland and Northern Ireland because of the turmoil on Wall Street and fiscal problems facing the state. A spokeswoman said Murray still hopes to eventually make the trip, which was planned to promote Massachusetts' life sciences, information technology and tourism industries. (Todd Wallack)

Just four months after opening a major expansion to the public, the owners of the Foxwoods Resort Casino revealed plans to cut about 6 percent of the workforce because of the weak economy. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which employs nearly 11,000 workers at Foxwoods, said the elimination of 700 jobs will be in addition to just under 200 disclosed in June and will come in the next few weeks. They will affect management and staff positions, tribal officials said. Each affected employee will receive medical benefits and two weeks pay for each year of service up to 26 weeks total, tribal officials said. (AP)

The Food and Drug Administration said it will spend up to $2.5 billion to upgrade the technology it uses to track the safety of food, drugs, and other products. The move comes after a year when the FDA has been criticized for its handling of a salmonella outbreak that implicated peppers and tomatoes. The ultimate source of the outbreak may never be known, regulators said, partly because of shortcomings in the nation's food safety system. The funds will be awarded over the next decade to 10 contractors, including General Dynamics Corp. (AP)

AT&T Inc., seeking to fight off competition from cable companies selling phone service, made management team changes to speed product introductions across its wireless, home phone, Internet, and television businesses. The changes, announced internally, align employee teams and products around three units that target businesses and consumers, spokesman Michael Coe said. The largest US phone company aims to accelerate the introduction of products that let customers access services from any AT&T device. Customers will, for example, be able to use a mobile phone to tell a TV to record a show, Coe said. He declined to disclose information about new products or marketing plans. (Bloomberg)

RealNetworks Inc., owner of the Rhapsody online music service, filed court papers seeking a ruling that its RealDVD software, which allows consumers to copy DVDs to computer hard drives, is legal. The filing in federal court in San Jose, Calif., came in response to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court by Hollywood film studios seeking to block RealNetworks from distributing the software, a RealNetworks spokesman said. The Motion Picture Association of America and studios it represents, including Walt Disney Co. and News Corp., claim RealDVD will facilitate piracy. (Bloomberg)