The deadline for the federal government to switch to all-electronic payments has arrived.

Friday marked the day on which the U.S. Department of Treasury switched over to all-electronic payments for those receiving Social Security, veterans' benefits, railroad pensions and federal disability payments.

The change was mandated by a Treasury rule issued in December 2010 in an effort to make payments more efficient and prevent checks from being stolen, and is expected to save Social Security $1 billion over the next decade.

The only beneficiaries exempt from the switch are people born before May 1, 1921.

If you still haven't made the change, call 1-800-333-1795, visit www.GoDirect.org or talk to your local federal paying agency office. Registrants must provide a Social Security or claim number, a 12-digit federal benefit check number and the amount of their latest federal benefit check.

After switching, recipients will receive payments via direct deposit or through the Treasury-offered Direct Express Debit Mastercard.

Salix Pharmaceuticals CEO Carolyn Logan said on a conference call with analysts Thursday that a federal investigation into the Raleigh's company's sales practices could "go on for quite some time."

"It's usually not a short process, as we've been told," she said.

Salix announced last month that it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York requesting documents related to the company's sales and promotional practices for three of its drugs.

The company received the subpoena on Feb. 1, according to its regulatory filing.

The drugs involved are Salix's best-selling Xifaxan, as well as Relistor and Apriso.

Salix said in its filing that it is in the process of responding to the subpoena and intends to cooperate fully with the investigation.

Morrisville-based Geomagic fetched a $55 million sale price, more than three times its projected annual revenue.

3D Systems, a publicly traded company based in Rock Hill, S.C., announced in January that it was acquiring Geomagic but didn't disclose the sale price at that time. However,in conjunction with the closing of the deal Wednesday it reported that it paid $55 million in cash for Geomagic, whose software creates 3D digital models.

3D Systems, which produces three-dimensional printers used to create 3D objects out of plastic and other materials, also reported that it expects Geomagic to contribute about $17 million in revenue this year.

3D Systems CEO Avi Reichental said in a statement that the deal give the company an "unmatched portfolio of powerful 3D content-to-print products and services."

With the deal's completion, Geomagic co-founder and CEO Ping Fu became chief strategy officer at 3D Systems as well as general manager of its Geomagic unit. Fu said when the deal was announced that none of Geomagic's 120 employees would be laid off and that she expects the local work force to expand "drastically" moving forward.

Chapel Hill drug-development company Cempra reported a net loss of $6.6 million, or 26 cents per share, in the fourth quarter.

That compared to a net loss of $3.8 million, or $7.13 per share, during the same period in 2011.

The company spent $4.4 million on research and development in the quarter, a 203 percent increase. The increased expenses were related to several clinical trial programs. Administration costs also increased 73 percent in the quarter, driven mostly by added employee and legal expenses.

Cempra doesn't have any drugs on the market.

It is developing a pneumonia medicine, solithromycin, and Taksta, a treatment for prosthetic-joint infections.

Both the antibiotics are aimed at infections that have developed resistance to antibiotics, a widespread and growing problem.

Cempra's timetable for both its leading drug candidates calls for filing for marketing approval with the Food and Drug Administration in 2015.

For the year, the company reported a net loss of $24.5 million, or $1.23 per share, compared to a net loss of $25 million, or $47.53 per share, in 2011.

Cempra went public in February 2011, netting $54.7 million after expenses. The company had $70.1 million in cash at the end of the year.

Salix Pharmaceuticals reported late Thursday that revenue increased 28 percent in the fourth quarter and was up 36 percent for the full year.

The Raleigh company had revenue of $198.2 million for the quarter, which equaled the consensus among Wall Street analysts who cover the company.

Excluding the loss of extinguished debt and non-cash adjustments, net income for the quarter was $51 million, or 81 cents per share. That beat the 78 cents that Wall Street analysts forecast.

Salix, which sells drugs to treat gastrointestinal ailments, had revenue of $735.4 million last year. The company forecasts revenue of $920 million in 2013, a 25 percent increase.

A federal judge has sentenced the House of Raeford Farms, a poultry slaughtering and processing facility in Raeford, to two years of probation and fined it $150,000 for 10 counts of knowingly violating the Clean Water Act.

The company has also been ordered to pay a special assessment of $4,000.

According to the Justice Department, the House of Raeford was found to have allowed plant employs to bypass the plant’s pretreatment system and send its untreated wastewater directly to the city of Raeford’s wastewater treatment plant, without notifying city officials. 

Syngenta has high hopes for the commercial prospects of its new breed of corn, developed by scientists in Research Triangle Park, that protects from damage inflicted by an especially destructive pest -- the corn rootworm beetle.

Damage from the rootworm beetle costs U.S. farmers more than $1 billion a year, making it the "single most destructive pest in corn production," according to Syngenta.

The Switzerland-based agribusiness giant announced Thursday that its new, genetically modified Agrisure Duracade corn has been cleared for sale by the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- its final regulatory hurdle. The product was previously approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

"When farmers go to buy corn seeds in the fall for planting in 2014, Duracade will be available," said Syngenta spokesman Steven Goldsmith. The company employs about 400 workers at its biotechnology research arm in RTP and also has about 700 workers in Greensboro.

Syngenta is the world's No. 3 purveyor of seeds, behind Monsanto and Dupont. It's also a leader in crop-protection products such as insecticides and herbicides.

"We expect this will be a significant contributor to the future growth of Syngenta’s corn portfolio for many years to come," Goldsmith said. In 2012 Syngenta sales of corn and soybean seeds topped $1.8 billion, a 25 percent increase over 2011.

Damage from the rootworm beetle is most prevalent in the Midwest corn belt. "It's really not an issue in North Carolina," Goldsmith said.

Syngenta researchers Eric Chen and Hope Hart, both of whom work in RTP, are the principal scientists behind Agrisure Duracade, Goldsmith said.

Cary yellow pages publisher Dex One announced that it plans to appeal the delisting notice it has received from the New York Stock Exchange.

Dex reported Wednesday that it has been notified that it no longer meets the exchange's requirement of having a market capitalization -- the total value of its outstanding stock -- of at least $100 million.

Dex said it plans to cite in its appeal several "special factors" why the company shouldn't be delisted, including its pending merger with another yellow pages publisher, Texas-based SuperMedia. Based on their current trading levels, the combined company, which will be called Dex Media, would have a market capitalization of more than $150 million.

Dex anticipates that its shares will continue to trade on the NYSE during the appeals process.

The merger, which is expected to be completed before the end of June, will cost the Triangle a corporate headquarters. The combined company's headquarters will be based in Dallas.

Dex shares closed Wednesday at $185, up 5 cents, giving it a market capitalization of $94.1 million. Its shares were trading for 72 cents in November.

Highwoods Properties announced Wednesday that has acquired two office buildings in Tampa, Fla. for $56 million.

The buildings, Colonial Place I and II, are 86.8 percent leased. They include a total of 372,000 square feet in the Westshore area of Tampa. The buildings are adjacent to a 220,000-square-foot office building that Highwoods acquired in 2009.

Highwoods now owns 16 office buildings with 2.4 million square feet of space in the Westshore area.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions for Raleigh-based Highwoods. The real estate investment trust acquired $296 million in assets last year, including high-profile buildings in Atlanta and downtown Pittsburgh.

Highwoods expects the Colonial acquisitions to generate $4.6 million in cash and $4.9 million in net operating income for the full year.

Highwoods shares closed Wednesday at $36.14, up 43 cents. The stock is up 8 percent this year.

Gov. Pat McCrory made his first appointment to the influential N.C. Utilities Commission, picking an engineer with a background in heavy industry who works for a global company that makes products for the defense, oil-and-gas, mining and electric industries.

McCrory's pick, Don M. Bailey of Union County, is the primary energy engineer at ATI Allvac, a specialty metals producer in Monroe and part of a Pittsburgh conglomerate with 11,200 employees worldwide and $5 billion in sales last year.