Business digest

REGION

First Place Bank to buy 3 AmTrust Bank branches

WARREN — First Place Bank said Wednesday that it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire three AmTrust Bank branches in Lake County. The branches are in Mentor, Willowick and Wickliffe. The transaction includes $225 million in deposits.

“This purchase fits with our strategy of increasing our presence in the Cleveland market,” said Steven Lewis, president and chief executive of First Place Financial Corp., the holding company for First Place Bank. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.

NATION

Doctors give Apple CEO an ‘excellent prognosis’

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs appears to be a step closer to returning to work, as a doctor gave him an “excellent prognosis” after receiving a liver transplant at a Tennessee hospital.

“He received a liver transplant because he was ... the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available,” Dr. James D. Eason, chief of transplantation at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, said in a statement late Tuesday. “Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”

Eason said in a news release posted on the hospital’s Web site that when Jobs received the transplant, he was in end-stage liver disease. The doctor made the disclosure with Jobs’ permission. Jobs has been on a medical leave since January.

From Vindicator staff and wire reports