Business briefs
HP snub
Hewlett-Packard has refused to accept serv ice of a subpeona re quiring its new CEO Leo Apotheker to tes tify about his role in SAP’s downloading of Oracle software, an Or acle spokeswoman said.
Black exit
JPMorgan Chase Vice Chairman Steve Black is stepping down from the second-largest US bank, according to an internal memo sent by CEO Jamie Dimon.
BlackRock sale
Bank of America plans to reduce its stake in asset manager BlackRock to as little as 12.6 percent, from 33.9 percent. This comes after BlackRock re quested BofA repur chase some of its bad mortgages last month.
AOL profit
Shares of AOL climbed 81 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $26.10 yester day after the Internet company spun off by Time Warner reported that third-quarter profit more than doubled.
SEC ban
The SEC voted to ban brokers from letting cli ents make unsupervised trades on stock ex changes amid concern that a rogue transaction could roil markets.