Ntelos, a telecommunications company headquartered in Waynesboro, has purchased Conestoga Enterprises Inc., a telecommunications firm based in Birdsboro, Penn. The deal was made for $335 million in cash and stock, plus assumption of $73 million of Conestoga debt. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 07/26/01)

Lifeminders, a Herndon-based provider of personalized e-mail marketing services, has agreed to be bought by Cross Media Marketing Corp., a New York company specializing in direct marketing services, for cash and stock valued at $68.1 million. (The Washington Post, 07/19/01)

Smithfield Foods Inc., a Smithfield-based processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats, purchased 13 million shares, or 50 percent, of the outstanding stock of Pinnacle Foods Inc. for $6 million. Smithfield will combine its distribution capabilities with Pinnacle and recently acquired Moyer Packing Company. (PRNewswire, 06/28/01)

E*TRADE Bank, an Arlington-based Internet bank and wholly owned subsidiary of E*TRADE Group Inc., acquired 15,000 customer accounts with deposits valued at over $389.7 million in a transaction with Advanta National Bank, a subsidiary of financial-services company, Advanta Corp. (PRNewswire, 06/28/01)

Virginia Capital Bancshares, a $532.7-million bank-holding company headquartered in Fredericksburg, has been acquired by Winston Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corp. for $181.1 million. (Press release, 06/28/01)

James River Bankshares Inc., a Suffolk-based financial-holding company, has been acquired by Falls Church-based First Virginia Banks Inc. James River’s assets of $531 million will put First Virginia’s total assets over the $10 billion mark. (PRNewswire, 06/27/01)

Roncile Inc., a Rocky Mount-based supplier of space-dyed yarns to the commercial carpet market, has acquired The Bacova Guild, Ltd., a supplier of floor mats and accent rugs located in Low Moor and the Village of Bacova, and owned by Burlington Industries Inc. (Press release, 06/19/01)

Aptagen Inc., a biotechnology company headquartered in Herndon, acquired Delaware-based protein-engineering company Protein Genesis Inc. in a stock swap. The technology acquired in the purchase will enable Aptagen to rapidly, efficiently and inexpensively produce genetically enhanced proteins. (The Washington Post, 06/19/01)

Yellowbrix Inc., an Alexandria-based provider of content-infrastructure solutions for Web sites and corporate intra- and extranets, entered an asset-purchase agreement with iSyndicate Inc., a provider of Internet syndication-infrastructure and applications solutions based in San Francisco. (Business Wire, 06/18/01)

Staunton-based Virginia Financial Corp. and Virginia Commonwealth Financial Corp. of Culpeper signed an agreement for a merger-of-equals transaction, which will create the third largest independent bank-holding company in Virginia. The combined company will be known as Virginia Financial Group. (PRNewswire, 06/13/01)

Sybron Biochemicals, a Salem-based division of biotechnology company Sybron Chemical and a subsidiary of Bayer Corp., has been acquired by Novozymes of Denmark. (The Roanoke Times, 06/12/01)

Hilb, Rogal and Hamilton Company, a Richmond-based provider of insurance and risk-management services, signed a definitive merger agreement with Berwanger Overmeyer Associates, central Ohio’s largest independent insurance broker. (Press release, 06/11/01)

Ethyl Corp., a chemical-additives producer headquartered in Richmond, merged its B2B e-commerce network, Envera, with Chemconnect, operator of online marketplace World Chemical Exchange. (Business Wire, 06/07/01)

Cavalier Telephone, a Richmond-based local phone competitor, signed a $20-million deal to buy Conectiv Communications of Newark, Del. The deal will create the largest competitive local phone company in the Mid-Atlantic region with more than 130,000 installed phone lines and 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 06/07/01)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will invest $40 million into a food distribution center in Louisa County. Expected to open by spring 2003, the 880,000 square-foot facility will employ 600. Virginia successfully competed with Maryland for the investment. (Press release, 07/25/01)

VeriSign, a Mountain View, Calif. provider of Internet infrastructure services, will establish a call center near Bluefield. The company plans to employ approximately 100 people and invest $2.5 million in the facility, which will be operated by The Software Factory under a subcontract from VeriSign. (Press release, 07/16/01)

York County has been chosen by All-Metal Machine Specialties Ltd., a Canadian-based supplier of new unlined brake shoes, as the location for its new distribution operation. (Press release, 06/29/01)

Long-Airdox Co.’s former premises in Rural Retreat will become a new plant for Mid-Atlantic Manufacturing and Hydraulics Inc., a subsidiary of West Virginia-based Swanson Industries Inc. (The Roanoke Times, 06/29/01)

Morton G. Thalhimer Inc., a Richmond-based provider of commercial real estate services, entered a strategic alliance with Insignia/ESG, an international commercial real estate company. The new entity will operate under the name Insignia Thalhimer. (Press release, 06/25/01)

Exostar, a Reston-based electronic marketplace for the aerospace and defense industry, entered a strategic partnership with power-systems provider Rolls-Royce, which took a 17 percent stake in Exostar and a seat on its board. (VentureWire, 06/18/01)

Dominion, an energy production company headquartered in Richmond, and Anker Energy Corp. announced plans to develop a new coal and coal-waste fired electric power station and mining complex in Upshur County, W.Va. The 450-megawatt station represents a potential investment of $600 million in the county that will create more than 500 construction jobs in addition to 50 to 60 permanent, high-skill jobs at the station and between 25 and 30 permanent mining jobs. (Business Wire, 06/14/01)

Smyth County was selected by Maryland-based Competitive Power Ventures as the location for a new $400-million, natural gas-fired power-generating plant to be constructed within three years near Marion. (The Roanoke Times, 06/13/01)

Teleglobe, a Reston-based provider of Internet access via satellite, entered an agreement with China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite Corp. in the People’s Republic of China to provide high-speed services for the Chinese company’s customers. (Business Wire, 06/12/01)

Barber Martin Advertising, a full-service advertising agency headquartered in Richmond, won accounts with Richmond International Raceway and Dominion Auto Group of Richmond. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 06/08/01)

Ford Motor Company announced a $375 million investment in its Norfolk truck plant. The 350,000 square-foot body shop will generate up to 200 new jobs. (The Virginian-Pilot, 07/23/01)

Harold J. Daniels, CEO and president, InfoShark Inc., a Chantilly based provider of data-integration software products. (Business Wire, 06/26/01)

Sheridan Dickinson, president of Competitive Networks Solutions, a core business unit of network communications company, Verestar Inc. (Business Wire, 06/11/01)

Cryptek Secure Communications, a Chantilly-based developer and seller of secure communications products to the public and private sectors, leased 40,300 square feet of office and flex-assembly space in Dulles from Buchanan Partners of Gaithersburg, Md. (Press release, 06/25/01)

Divaris Real Estate, headquartered in Virginia Beach, leased 42,000 square feet of industrial space located at 4600 Village Avenue in Norfolk to Signal Corp., a Fairfax-based defense contractor to the Navy. Signal will consolidate its two current locations into the space. (Press release, 06/20/01)

ECPI College of Technology, an independent private technical-education college, leased 32,000 square feet at Dulles Towne Centre Mall from CB Richard Ellis. The College opens for fall semester classes in August. (Press release, 06/20/01)

Media General, a communications company headquartered in Richmond, will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange before the end of the third quarter under the symbol MEG. (Press release, 07/17/01)

Optical Cable Corp., a Roanoke-based manufacturer of high-bandwith fiber-optic cable, proposed a $90 million public offering of common stock. Net proceeds will be used to repay short-term debt and for working capital, expanding manufacturing operations and general corporate purposes. (The Roanoke Times, 06/29/01)

PEC Solutions Inc., a Fairfax-based provider of advanced-technologies solutions to governmental entities, priced its public offering of 4,350,000 common stock shares at $17 per share. (Business Wire, 06/27/01)

First Community Bancshares Inc., a bank-holding company headquartered in Bluefield, rescinded its previously announced stock repurchase plan that provided for the purchase of up to 5 percent of approximately 436,000 shares of its common stock. The plan termination resulted from a significant increase in the value of the stock and new opportunities for capital investment. (Business Wire, 06/19/01)

Chesapeake Corp., a Richmond-based specialty-packaging company, sold to Georgia-Pacific Corp., an Atlanta-based manufacturer and distributor of paper products, an additional 27 percent interest in Color-Box, LLC for $35 million. A joint venture between the two companies, Color Box designs and manufactures litho-laminated corrugated graphic packaging. The sale represents a continuation of Chesapeake’s planned divestitures to reposition the company as a focused specialty packaging company. (Business Wire, 07/02/01)

Orbital Sciences Corp., a Dulles-based manufacturer of low-cost space systems, sold four million shares of its MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, Ltd. subsidiary for approximately $38 million to a group of Canadian investors that include British Columbia Investment Management Corp., James Richardson & Sons, Ltd. and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. (PRNewswire, 06/27/01)

PSINet Inc., a provider of Internet and information-technology solutions headquartered in Ashburn, entered an agreement to sell substantially all of its Canadian assets and businesses to TELUS Corp., a telecommunications company based in British Columbia. (Business Wire, 06/20/01)

ServiceNet, a Herndon-based application-services provider, sold its data-center operations arm to Minneapolis-based Navitaire, a provider of revenue-management and -protection services for the airline industry. (VentureWire, 06/14/01)

PSINet Inc., an Ashburn-based provider of Internet and information-technology, signed a definitive share-purchase agreement with an investment group led by iLatin for the purchase of PSINet’s operations and facilities in Chile. (Business Wire, 06/14/01)

PSINet Inc., an Ashburn-based Internet service provider, agreed to sell most of its Latin American operations in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay to a group of investors led by Cori Capital Partners LP, a New York private-equity firm. (The Washington Post, 06/08/01)

TOWER Software, a Reston-based global provider of document and content management solutions, has been awarded a contract to provide an electronic documents and records management system for the Navy Marine Corps Intranet as part of EDS’ $6.9-billion contract with the Department of the Navy. (Business Wire, 06/27/01)

Getronics Government Solutions, a McLean-based provider of secure desktop and network solutions to the federal government, has been awarded a three-year, $15-million contract by the Air Force Material command for its system networking. (Business Wire, 06/26/01)

Anteon Corp., an information technology and engineering solutions company headquartered in Fairfax, has been awarded an indefinite-cost, indefinite delivery contract valued at $29 million over five years by Dahlgren Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center. The contract provides services for diving, salvage and life support, and ocean engineering. (Press release, 06/22/01)

Orbital Sciences Corp., a Dulles-based manufacturer of low-cost space systems, has been awarded a $5-million contract by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command for a ballistic missile target launch vehicle to support operational testing of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 system. (Press release, 06/20/01)

RS Information Systems, an information-technology services firm headquartered in McLean, has been awarded a $10.5-million contract with the Air Force Systems Group to support weapons systems logistics at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. (Press release, 06/20/01)

Blacksburg-based Haleos, a producer of fiber-optic components, announced the layoff of 22 of its nearly 200 employees because of changing market conditions. (The Roanoke Times, 07/25/01)

First USA, a subsidiary of Chicago-headquartered Bank One Corp., announced it would not keep open the Wachovia Bank credit-card service center in Chesapeake after it buys Wachovia’s $8 billion portfolio of consumer card accounts. About 230 workers are employed at the Chesapeake facility. (The Virginian-Pilot, 07/19/01)