Business highlights

SAN FRANCISCO — EBay Inc. is buying rapidly growing online ticket broker StubHub Inc. for $310 million in cash, further expanding the Internet auctioneer’s electronic bazaar.

The San Jose-based company announced the deal late Wednesday after the news had already been leaked to the media.

StubHub’s sale, expected to close before April, punctuates another improbable Internet success story.

Jeff Fluhr, StubHub’s 32-year-old co-founder and chief executive, launched the San Francisco startup against the dreary backdrop of the dot-com bust 6 1/2 years ago with another former student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Eric Baker.

"StubHub’s business model is an excellent fit with eBay, a company we’ve admired for a long time,” Fluhr said in a statement. "StubHub exists to serve passionate fans and we feel great knowing our customers will benefit from the power of eBay and its community of users.”

EBay’s market value has plunged by nearly 50 percent, or $37 billion, over the past two years amid investor concerns about slowing growth in its online auctions, prodding management to expand through into other channels of electronic commerce.

Its recent acquisitions have included Internet phone service Skype and online price comparison service Shopping.com, neither of which have become as integral to eBay as its 2002 purchase of online payment service PayPal.

US Airways ups offer for Delta Air Lines to $10.3B

ATLANTA — US Airways increased the pressure on Delta Air Lines’ unsecured creditors to take its buyout offer by raising the bid Wednesday nearly 20 percent to $10.3 billion. Whether the deal would survive regulatory scrutiny may be the deciding factor.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based company also set a Feb. 1 deadline for certain conditions to be met or its entire bid would be revoked.

The ball is now in the creditors’ court.

The question is whether they want to take the money US Airways is offering and run the risk of a long regulatory fight, or stick with Delta’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy by the middle of this year as a standalone company worth $9.4 billion to $12 billion.

Daniel Golden, a lawyer for Delta’s unsecured creditors committee, did not return several phone calls Wednesday seeking comment. Most of the large creditors on the committee have refused to discuss their position publicly, except Delta’s pilots union, which opposes the merger.

Trade deficit declines for third consecutive month

The trade deficit fell for a third straight month as the U.S. bill for foreign oil declined to the lowest level in 16 months and American exports hit an all-time high.

The deficit for November declined by 1 percent to $58.2 billion, the lowest since July 2005, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The trade gap hadn’t fallen for three consecutive months since early 2003.

The Bush administration hailed the improvement as a sign that its efforts to pry open foreign markets were working. "When we open overseas markets, American companies, consumers and workers benefit,” said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

But administration critics said even with the recent improvement, the 2006 deficit will still be significantly higher than in 2005 with much of the deterioration coming from China.

"Our trade deficit is still out of control. Unless the administration takes action to end China’s unfair currency manipulation, we will continue to see the problem get worse,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and the new chairman of the Joint Economic Committee.