A technology services company that is hiring hundreds of workers for its Raleigh call center will be bought by Xerox.

Affiliated Computer Services of Dallas will be acquired for about $6.4 billion in cash in stock, the companies announced this morning. The deal will help expand Xerox's business beyond printers and document management products into more services for corporations.

ACS already employs about 2,500 people in North Carolina, including 1,000 at a Cary facility and 700 in Raleigh. The company provides customer-support services for health-care, government and other customers.

In August, ACS announced plans to hire 465 people to expand its Raleigh call center, including 125 permanent and full-time positions, and 340 temporary jobs.

Red Hat has beefed up its board with an accounting professor from Brigham Young University.

The Raleigh software company announced this afternoon that Donald H. Livingstone, a teaching professor at BYU's Marriott School of Business, is the ninth member of its board of directors.

Livingstone will make $70,000 a year in cash for his board and committee work at Red Hat, the company reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. He'll also receive an initial grant of restricted stock worth about $300,000. And he'll be eligible to get $150,000 more in restricted stock every year.

"His experience and financial acumen will be key as we look to drive further growth in our business," said Red Hat CEO James Whitehurst, in a prepared statement.

The top executive at EMC Corp. expects there's a "sea change" coming that will wipe out some big technology companies but create opportunities for the survivors.

The current recession is far worse than the dot-com bust that hurt sales at EMC and other companies, CEO Joe Tucci told Bloomberg News.

"When you have a sea change, it never goes back to the way it was,” Tucci told Bloomberg. “I would predict that if you look at the major players now, six years from now there is a change to that list. More than one will surf it well and more than one will not surf it well. My job is just very, very simple: Surf it well.”

On Thursday, the Massachusetts company announced plans to expand its Triangle operations and add 397 high-paying jobs in Durham, Research Triangle Park and Apex. EMC was lured partly by the promise of state and local incentives worth more than $8 million if it meets its hiring goals. The company already employs more than 900 in North Carolina, mostly in the Triangle.

The Triangle's jobless rate was unchanged at 8.4 percent in August, suggesting that while the worst of the recession is easing, employers aren't rushing to hire new workers any time soon.

The latest data were released Friday by the N.C. Employment Security Commission and adjusted for seasonal effects by Wells Fargo Securities economists in Charlotte.

The News&Observer uses the adjusted data to provide a more statistically valid measure of local unemployment. The state jobless rate, which fell slightly to 10.8 percent in August, is seasonally adjusted by the Employment Security Commission.

"These numbers show that the unemployment rate appears to be topping out around the state, but the recovery is likely to be very slow," said Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wells Fargo.

North Carolina continues to court and capture chicken jobs.

Townsends Inc., a Delaware poultry producer, plans to expand its Mocksville facility and create 103 new jobs over the next three years, Gov. Bev Perdue's office announced this morning.

The expansion follows the news in late July that Sanderson Farms would revive plans to build a poultry processing complex in Kinston that's expected to employ 1,500 people when it reaches full capacity. Construction began in August and the complex is expected to open in early 2011, said Sanderson spokesman Mike Cockrell.

North Carolina is home to hundreds of chicken farmers and dozens of processing plants. The industry employs more than 25,000 people across the state.

They're serving cold beer and hot barbeque in Durham this afternoon to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

The Research Triangle Park nonprofit was established in 1984 and has expanded to become one of the country's largest support groups for entrepreneurs and start-up businesses. CED now has 5,500 members.

The silver anniversary festivities will include CED president Joan Siefert Rose discussing CED's new logo and marketing strategy as the recession drags on. She joined CED in 2008 as its second president, replacing Monica Doss, who ran the group since 1986.

GlaxoSmithKline is having a tougher time finding attractive new drugs to acquire, as rivals bid up prices, the company's head of research told Bloomberg News.

The trend could force GSK to pass on buying some promising experimental drugs, said Moncef Slaoui, left.

"Some of our competitors are desperate because they pay just an incredible price for some medicines," he told Bloomberg. "And if it's a matter of life or death for them, then maybe it makes sense for them, but not to us. So sometimes we may lose some partnerships for financial reasons, which is frustrating."

EMC Corp., the maker of data-storage computers, plans to expand its Triangle operations and add nearly 400 high-paying jobs.

EMC will build a new data center in Durham County, and expand its research facility in Research Triangle Park and a manufacturing plant in Apex, officials with the N.C. Commerce Department announced this afternoon.

The Massachusetts company already employs 914 in North Carolina, mostly in the Triangle.

EMC was considering expansion in New York, Washington, Canada and Virginia, but was lured to North Carolina partly by a state grant worth up to $7.4 million over nine years. The company will have to meet hiring goals and keep its existing jobs to receive the full value of the grant.

The 397 new jobs will pay average annual salaries of $73,325.

Duke Energy will replace its company cars and trucks with plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles, Bloomberg News is reporting.

Charlotte-based Duke made the announcement today in conjunction with the Florida utility, FPL Group, at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York.

The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce's new board of directors includes executives from across the Triangle representing a wide range of industries.

Their one-year terms start Oct. 1. The board is elected from chamber members and helps set policies and priorities.