Business notebook

Acquisition: Tibco Software Inc. agreed to buy fellow business software maker Spotfire Inc., of Somerville, for about $195 million to gain access to clients such as Pfizer Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc.

Job cuts: Bank of America Corp. cut 30 jobs in equity sales and trading after overstaffing some areas that didn't require as much coverage.

Request: Internet telephone company Vonage Holdings Corp. asked a federal appeals court to throw out a patent verdict it lost to Verizon Communications Inc. in March, based on a US Supreme Court opinion issued yesterday.

Suing: An ABN Amro Holding NV shareholder sued to stop the bank's $88.1 million takeover by Barclays PLC, saying chief executive Rijkman Groenink and other company executives breached their duty to investors.

Net revenue: Comcast Corp., the number one US cable operator, said it sees at least $1 billion in online advertising in the next five to six years as it cultivates new revenue sources.

Very Blue: Some 1,300 workers in IBM Corp. services operations in the United States have received notices that their jobs are slated for elimination, according to The Alliance at IBM, a labor group.

Oil drops: Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell $1.31 to settle at $64.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange a day before the US government's report on oil and gasoline inventories.

IPO: Virgin Mobile USA Inc., a joint venture of billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group Ltd. and Sprint Nextel Corp., plans to raise as much as $100 million in an initial public offering to pay down debt. The company will seek a NYSE listing under the ticker "VM."

Web link: Joost, the Internet TV platform being developed by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, said it had signed several content-distribution agreements, including one to show CNN programs such as Headline News (above).

(Globe wire services)