Biz Buzz

LONG ISLAND

Open Access deal completed

The sale of Farmingdale-based fiber optic network provider Open Access Inc. has closed, said the buyer, Lightower Fiber Networks of Boxborough, Mass., which first announced the deal in December. The privately held company did not say how much it paid for Open Access. Open Access's client base is Long Island-wide, and includes more than 230 commercial buildings and data centers, Lightower said. Open Access, with headquarters on Bi-County Boulevard in Farmingdale, provides fiber-based, "diverse, cost-effective, customized end-to-end communications solutions," Lightower said in an announcement. Lightower's current network has more than 5,800 fiber route miles and provides access to some 2,300 commercial buildings, data centers, telecom hotels and other critical interconnection facilities throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. -- JOSEPH MALLIA

STATE

Stores avert big fee increase

Convenience stores in New York State, which currently pay $100 a year to register as tobacco sellers, have dodged a state government proposal that could have sharply increased registration fees, a trade group says. Stores will probably only have to pay a $300 annual tobacco fee instead of a proposed increase to as much as $5,000 annually, the National Association of Convenience Stores said in an announcement last week. Under current law the stores pay a $100 annual fee. The higher fee increases were proposed during the budget process but were not included in the final draft passed last week. -- JOSEPH MALLIA

NATION

Email fraud warnings

With the possible theft of millions of email addresses from an advertising company, several large companies have started warning customers to expect fraudulent emails that try to coax account login information from them. Companies behind such brands as Chase, Citigroup and Best Buy said over the weekend that hackers may have learned their email addresses because of a security breach at a Dallas-based company called Epsilon that manages email communications. It's a standard tactic among online fraudsters to send emails to random people, purporting to be from a large bank and asking them to login in at a site that looks like the bank's site. Instead, the fraudulent site captures their login information and uses it to access the real account. -- AP

Feds seek bogus silver coins

Federal prosecutors yesterday tried to take a five-ton hoard of silver "Liberty Dollars" worth about $7 million that authorities say was invented by an Indiana man to compete with U.S. currency. Bernard von NotHaus, 67, was convicted last month in federal court in Statesville on conspiracy and counterfeiting charges for making and selling the currency, which he promoted as inflation-proof competition for the U.S. dollar. His Charlotte-based lawyer is appealing that verdict. -- AP

Stock ends session mixed

A light trading day on Wall Street closed with slight gains for major stock indexes. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 23.31 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,400.03. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained less than a point to 1,332.87. The Nasdaq composite lost less than a point to 2,789.19. -- AP

INTERNATIONAL

Oil prices at 30-month high

The price of oil jumped to a fresh 30-month high, above $108 a barrel yesterday as fighting in Libya and unrest in the Middle East continued to raise doubts about future supplies. Benchmark crude for May delivery gained 53 cents to settle at $108.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At one point the contract rose as high as $108.78 per barrel, the highest price since September 2008. In London, Brent crude rose $2.25 to settle at $120.66 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Analyst and trader Stephen Schork said sagging demand in the United States may eventually pull oil prices down from their highs this year, but so far most traders seem to be waiting for the Middle East to cool off. -- AP