Also. . .

Boeing Co. said it has completed a $3.75-billion purchase of Hughes Electronics Corp.’s satellite-making business, boosting Boeing’s space-based revenue to nearly $10 billion a year. Boeing, already the world’s biggest plane maker, renamed the 9,000-employee, El Segundo-based Hughes unit Boeing Satellite Systems and said it would help the Seattle-based company’s space and communications division grow faster than its core commercial airplane business and its military unit.

*

* Prudential Securities Inc. said that Hardwick Simmons would retire as chief executive of Prudential Insurance Co. of America’s brokerage arm and would be replaced by John Strangfeld. James Price, now executive vice president of Prudential Securities’ private-client group, was named president of the firm.

*

* Thousand Oaks-based health insurer WellPoint Health Networks Inc. said it agreed to pay $5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that delayed its $500-million acquisition of Cerulean Cos. The deal to purchase the parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, is set to close by year’s end.

*

* Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Corona-based generic drug maker, agreed to buy closely held Makoff R&D; Laboratories Inc. of Marina del Rey, which licenses and markets kidney-disease drugs, for about $185 million in stock.

*

* Raffles Holdings Ltd. of Singapore said it bought L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, a 124-room luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, for $68 million, part of its expansion into North America.

*

Guide to Our Staff: Need to reach Business section reporters or editors? A guide to the section’s staff can be found at https://www.latimes.com/bizstaff.