SYMANTEC, () a maker of Norton security software, said Q2 EPS rose 11.5% to 29 cents ex items, beating views by 3 cents. Revenue rose 13% to $1.42 bil. It guided down. Shares fell.

F5 NETWORKS, () an IT services company, said Q4 EPS fell 48% to 15 cents, 4 cents over views. Sales rose 30% to $146 mil. It guided down. Shares fell.

STARENT NETWORKS, () a maker of wireless equipment, said Q3 EPS rose 33% to 8 cents ex items, 8 cents over views. Sales rose 4% to $37 mil. Shares fell.

VCA ANTECH, () an animal health care company, lifted Q3 EPS 19% to 38 cents, a penny over views. Sales rose 22% to $306.5 mil, ahead of estimates. It sees ‘07 EPS in line with views.

ELI LILLY, () a drug maker, suspended two studies of a blood-clotting drug that has been expected to eventually garner $1 bil in sales. Shares fell.

COVANCE, () a drug maker, said its Q3 EPS rose 26% to 69 cents, beating by a penny. Revenue grew 16% to $415 mil.

Enzymes from Palo Alto lab to help produce ethanol

DuPont and a Danish food company will use enzymes developed in a Palo Alto lab to produce ethanol from crop waste, the businesses announced Wednesday.

DuPont, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, and biotech firm Genencor have formed a joint venture to develop cellulosic ethanol, one of the hottest fields in the burgeoning green tech industry.

Genencor, which has offices in Palo Alto and Rochester, N.Y., is owned by Danisco, a Danish company that makes food ingredients. Together, Danisco and DuPont will spend $140 million on the effort.

Cellulosic ethanol can be made from a wide range of grasses and woody plants, but it costs more than ethanol made from corn. The new joint venture, DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol, will use enzymes developed by Genencor to break down plants and lower the cost of production. The joint venture will use corn stalks and crushed sugarcane stalks as sources of fuel and may use wheat straw in the future.

The joint venture plans to open a pilot biorefinery in the United States next year.

- David R. Baker United, Continental discuss alliance

United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. are talking about forming an alliance to gain some benefits of working together without going through a merger, which Continental rejected last month, a person close to the talks said Wednesday.

United is pushing ahead with negotiations aimed at a merger with US Airways Group Inc. but would not pursue both deals, said the source, who was not authorized to speak about the matter and requested anonymity.

United is expected to take up the matter today at a meeting of parent UAL Corp.’s board of directors. No vote is expected, and the sources said a decision is not imminent on which of three options United will pursue: consolidating with US Airways, forming an alliance with Continental, or remaining a stand-alone carrier.

An alliance, in which the companies would work together in many ways but not merge their operations, would provide a way for them to raise revenue without the integration problems that come with formal consolidation. It could set pricing and schedules and have U.S. antitrust immunity.

Associated Press $115 million financing for Oakland solar firm

An Oakland company developing large solar power plants in the Mojave Desert has secured $115 million in its latest private financing round, with investors including Google Inc. and three major oil companies.

BrightSource Energy Inc. secured funding from divisions of BP, Chevron Corp. and Norway’s StatoilHydro, as well as venture capital firms DBL Investors and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

In March, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. agreed to buy power from three big solar thermal plants that BrightSource plans to build in Southern California. Fields of mirrors at each plant will focus sunlight on central towers, boiling water within the towers, creating steam and turning turbines to generate electricity.

- David R. Baker U.S. found to keep competitive edge

The United States topped world competitiveness rankings for the 15th straight year, but its economy is showing the same signs of weakness that sank booming Japan in the early 1990s, according to an annual survey released Thursday.

Asian economies Singapore and Hong Kong ranked just behind the United States, as they did last year. Switzerland jumped two places to fourth, while Luxembourg rounded out the top five most competitive national economies, said Switzerland’s IMD business school, publisher of the World Competitiveness Yearbook.

“The big question is whether the United States will be No. 1 after this year,” project director Stephane Garelli said, adding that the report was based on 2007 data that do not reflect all of the problems in U.S. financial markets.

The study lists 55 economies according to 331 criteria that measure how the nations create and maintain conditions favorable to businesses.

The U.S. position was cemented by its domestic economy, which is the world’s strongest, topping all others in its amount of investments, stock purchases and commercial service exports. The United States also ranks as the easiest place to secure venture capital for business development and dominates all other economies in key technology criteria such as computers in use, according to the report.

Associated Press

A NEW ferry link between Norway, Shetland and mainland Scotland has moved a step closer to reality.

After a feasibility study, an advert seeking expressions of interest from potential operators has been placed in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The consortium promoting the link - which includes the Shetland Development Trust - yesterday said a decision on whether to proceed could now be made as early as October.

The project aims to provide a “Motorway of the Sea” between Norway and the UK mainland, linking to existing services to the Continent.

The proposed service would be based on one ferry doing two round trips a week between Kristiansund, Lerwick and a UK port. Rosyth, in Fife, is understood to be one of the options.

The initiative comes as Shetland is losing its Scandinavian ferry links after the Smyril Line dropped the islands from its schedule for 2008 because of low passenger and freight take-up.

The new service could be up and running either next year or in 2009.

The Shetland Development Trust contributed 50,000 towards the study into the potential of such a link.