Also

* Menlo Park investor Silver Lake Partners said it was pumping $500 million into France’s Thomson, parent company of the Technicolor film lab that has long been a major supplier to the motion picture industry.

* As expected, Santander Central Hispano, the largest bank in Spain and Latin America, agreed to buy Britain’s Abbey National for about $15.2 billion in Europe’s biggest-ever cross-border banking takeover.

* America Online Inc. said it would broadcast a sneak preview of a new WB Television Network series, “Jack & Bobby,” over its high-speed Internet service, marking the first time a media company premieres a new show over the Internet in its entirety.