PNC deal

PNC Financial Services Group may pay $3.45 bil lion in cash and stock for US assets of Royal Bank of Canada, sources said. The deal could be an nounced as soon as today, they said..

Skype flap

Skype, the Internet-call ing service being bought by Microsoft, is firing senior execs before the deal closes, a move that reduces the value of their payout, sources said. The timing means stock op tions will be worth less than if the executives stayed until the closing of the $8.5 billion deal.

Euro peril

European governments weighed withholding half of Greece’s next 12 bil lion-euro ($17.2 billion) aid payment, seeking to keep the country solvent while maintaining pres sure on the government to slash the debt that pitched the euro area into crisis. Finance ministers may authorize only a bil lion-euro loan to tide Greece through bond re demptions in July, while further aid hinges on Greek budget cuts.

One big union

Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists met for the first, formal face-to-face discus sions. The two groups plan to merge and create one successor union.