ATLANTA (AP) - An online banking company founded in Columbus (Ohio) has been sold in a $4.2 billion deal. CheckFree is now headquartered in the Atlanta area, though it still employs 900 people in the Columbus suburb of Dublin.

QUICKBORN, Germany (Thomson Financial) - Commerzbank AG's online banking unit comdirect said that pretax profit in the first quarter rose 2.7 pct to 25.9 mln eur and net profit increased by 4.3 pct to 16.8 mln eur on strong interest income.