Fingerprint reader aids Apple’s digital security

Apple has agreed to buy fingerprint reader AuthenTec Inc. for approximately $356 million as the maker of iPhones and iPads looks to strengthen its digital security capabilities. Apple’s acquisition comes as consumers use their smartphones for more and more daily activities. AuthenTec said Apple Inc. is paying $8 for each of its common shares, a 58 percent premium to their closing price on Thursday. The deal was unanimously approved by AuthenTec’s board. It still requires approval from a majority of the holders of the Melbourne, Fla., company’s stock. York, Detroit, Memphis, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta.

Founded in Cincinnati in 1977, Comair became a Delta Connection carrier in 1984, with Delta soon after taking a partial ownership share. The carrier was a financial star of the burgeoning regional industry and in the 1990s became a launch customer for the 50-passenger Canadair regional jet. Comair gradually expanded at the Cincinnati airport.

Delta acquired all of Comair for about $2 billion in 2000 in a move to absorb its profits and gain full control of its regional jet fleet.

A tragic chapter in Comair’s history came in 2006, when a Comair flight crashed while attempting to take off from the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky., killing 49 people.

Meanwhile, 50-seat jets were becoming economically less attractive to airlines and disliked by passengers in favor of newer, larger jets that are more fuel-efficient and less cramped. Delta Connection once used about 500 of the 50-seat regional jets but has begun retiring them in recent years.

Amid that backdrop and economy-related flight cuts, Comair had been gradually shrinking along with the Cincinnati hub. The hub once had more than 600 daily departures and now has about 120.

Comair operates some of the oldest 50-seat regional jets in the Delta Connection fleet, according to a memo from Comair President Ryan Gumm to employees. He called the decision to cease operations “an unfortunate necessity due to the economic limitations of our aging aircraft, cost structure, the long-term outlook for 50seat aircraft, and our challenging industry and economy.”

The decision comes as Delta plans to reduce its fleet of 50-seat regional jets from nearly 350 today to 125, enabled by a recently approved pilot labor contract and a deal to lease from rival Southwest Airlines all of the Boeing 717s Southwest inherited through its acquisition of AirTran Airways.