Also. . .

* Satellite TV companies moved a step closer to competing head to head against cable TV as the House of Representatives approved a bill that would grant them permission to start airing local TV channels. Currently, satellite TV companies such as Hughes Electronics Corp.’s DirecTV cannot legally air local signals. Satellite customers who want to watch local channels must use a standard rooftop antenna or subscribe to cable TV. The bill, approved on a 422-1 vote, changes that and addresses other issues that stifle satellite companies’ ability to compete against cable TV, which controls 85% of the $44-billion subscription TV market.

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* Bankers Trust Corp. shareholders approved the company’s $10.1-billion sale to Deutsche Bank, removing a hurdle to creation of the world’s biggest financial services company. The vote leaves approval by U.S. regulators as the last major barrier to the sale. The banks expect to complete the transaction by the end of the quarter.

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* Time Warner Inc.’s CNNfn online and cable financial news network said it bought a minority stake in closely held NewsReal Inc., which already processes information and news for users of CNNfn’s Internet site. Terms weren’t disclosed. CNNfn said it acquired the stake to strengthen the companies’ partnership, which was established last year. Software produced by NewsReal, whose largest shareholder is financier George Soros, is used to filter articles from more than 500 news sources into 120 business and industry categories on the Web site CNNfn.com.

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* Fortune Brands Inc., whose products include Titleist golf balls, Master Lock padlocks and Jim Beam bourbon, said it will take a pretax charge of $1.2 billion in the second quarter to change the way it accounts for some acquisitions. The company also said it is moving its headquarters from Old Greenwich, Conn., to existing offices in Lincolnshire, Ill., and cutting its corporate staff by a third, or about 60 people.

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