Business notebook

New champ: Google Inc. has knocked Microsoft Corp. from its perch as the world's top-ranked brand. The rankings, compiled by market research firm Millward Brown, also put Google ahead of well-established brands like IBM and Coca-Cola.

Stocking up: Chip equipment maker Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc. said its board increased its stock repurchase plan to $500 million, from $400 million. To date, the company has bought back approximately $290 million in stock under the existing plan.

Deal: Waltham's Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. agreed to buy Spectral Diagnostics Private Ltd., a privately held distributor of professional diagnostics products in the Indian marketplace, for an initial payment of $4 million in cash and stock.

New job: Abiomed Inc. named David Weber chief operating officer, a new position at the Danvers company, which makes medical devices. Abiomed said Weber most recently was employed as general manager of General Electric Co.'s aviation and transportation business.

Court help: Vonage Holdings, ordered to stop adding customers after it lost a patent ruling, will ask a court to extend a temporary freeze of a lower court's order that bars it from adding business during the appeal.

Higher offer: Affiliated Computer Services Inc.'s founder and Cerberus Capital Management raised their bid to take the Dallas firm private to $6.21 billion.

Generic rush: The first generic versions of the insomnia drug Ambien won federal approval. The Food and Drug Administration said it approved versions of the immediate-release tablets made by 13 drug companies for the short-term treatment of insomnia after a patent held by Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis expired Saturday.

(Globe wire services)