Business briefs: Moody's cuts Japan's credit rating

Chipmaker Cypress Semiconductor is buying flash memory product maker Spansion in an all-stock deal worth $1.59 billion. Spansion stockholders will get 2.457 shares of Cypress stock for every Spansion share they own. Shareholders of each side will own about 50 percent of the new company, which will keep the name Cypress Semiconductor Corp. The companies valued the deal at $4 billion. They expect it to close in the first half of 2015, and they expect to cut annual costs by $135 million within three years. Spansion, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., had $972 million in revenue in 2013. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2009 as the global economic slump hurt electronics sales, but it reorganized and its shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange again in mid-2010. Cypress, based in San Jose, Calif., had $723 million in revenue in 2013.

Moody's Investors Service cut Japan's credit rating, a setback to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a day before he begins campaigning for an election that he wants to focus on the economy. Moody's reduced the rating for the world's third-biggest economy one level to A1, the same as Bermuda, Israel, Oman and the Czech Republic. The yen dropped to a seven-year low, then reversed the decline, while Japanese government bonds were little changed. The ratings company cited uncertainty over whether Japan will achieve its deficit-reduction goals and succeed in boosting growth, two weeks after Abe postponed an increase in the nation's sales tax. The Bank of Japan is buying record amounts of JGBs issued by a government that's already burdened by the world's heaviest public debt load. "This serves as a good reminder to Japanese voters that the country's fiscal situation is terrible," said Kazuhiko Ogata, chief Japan economist at Credit Agricole.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is investigating whether Graco took too long to report a safety defect in its child car seats. Graco Children's Products, a division of Atlanta-based Newell Rubbermaid Inc., recalled 6.1 million car seats this year because the buckles could get stuck. That could put a child's life at risk in an emergency. It is the largest child seat recall in U.S. history. Federal rules require a manufacturer to report a safety defect within five days of becoming aware of it. If the investigation finds the company failed to report the defect in a timely manner, the company could face up to $35 million in fines. Graco said Monday that it "thoroughly analyzed all data related to the buckles and took the required actions to keep our consumers safe." It said it is cooperating with the NHTSA investigation. No injuries have been reported because of the problem, the company said. The agency and the car seat maker were involved in an extended dispute over the car seat recall. When Graco recalled 4.2 million toddler seats in February, the NHTSA sent a sternly worded letter that questioned why infant car seats weren't included. It accused the company of soft-pedaling the recall with "incomplete and misleading" documents for consumers. The company gave in to regulatory pressure and recalled 1.9 million infant car seats in July.

The man overseeing General Motors' fund for victims of its defective ignition switch approved one more claim in the past week for a family whose loved one died in a crash caused by the defect, bringing the total of fatalities to 36. The number of claims for injuries tied to the defect remained unchanged at 44, according to a weekly update released by Ken Feinberg, administrator of the GM Ignition Compensation Fund. Since Feinberg began accepting claims Aug. 1, 2,215 claims have been submitted to his staff; 216 have been found ineligible for compensation, 463 contained insufficient evidence. Nearly half of the claims submitted were not documented at all. Only owners and families whose loss or injury occurred in one of the approximately 2.5 million 2003 through 2007 model year vehicles recalled for the defective ignition switch are eligible.