Tacoma-based Columbia Bank plans to open a branch in Edmonds next year. The bank, which purchased troubled First Heritage Bank in Snohomish and Summit Bank in Mount Vernon earlier this year, purchased a site on Edmonds Way near the Union 76 station, said Mark Nelson, Columbia’s chief operating offic

er. He said it will be busy integrating the new operations but hopes to start building in Edmonds early next year and open in 2012. The bank will be staffed with seven to 10 employees, Nelson said. He said the south county market is important to Columbia and the Edmonds branch will include enhanced services, such as members of the bank’s wealth management group.

Atlas Air to get new 747 this fall

Atlas Air expects to receive its first Boeing Co. 747-8 freighter in October, the company said Tuesday. Atlas Air also anticipates receiving another two 747-8 freighters in November. The company believes the updated freighters will lower its costs. “Our 747-8F aircraft will drive volumes and profitability in our core … business,” noted William Flynn, president of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc. Boeing hopes to deliver both the first 747-8 freighter and passenger plane by year’s end. Cargolux is the launch customer for the new 747-8.

Amazon to launch deal web site

Online retailer Amazon.com is trying to become a bigger player in the mushrooming market for online deals with the launch of a website that offers large discounts on local goods and services. AmazonLocal deals, which launched in Boise, Idaho, in June, is available in 14 different places, including Chicago and several parts of southern California and Washington (naturally, Amazon.com Inc.’s hometown of Seattle made the cut). Deals available Tuesday included a month of unlimited fitness boot camp for $49 — an 80 percent discount. Also available was either 10 admissions to a roller rink or four passes plus skate rentals and drinks for $20 — a 50 percent discount. Amazon said the deals are initially coming from LivingSocial, a popular daily deal site in which Amazon has invested. Starting soon, Amazon will come up with the deals on its own.

AOL offers new daily e-magazine

AOL is trying to snatch a larger portion of the tablet computer audience by launching free iPad software that presents a customized, daily e-magazine that draws in content from all over the Web. Called Editions, the app is being released Wednesday. It includes a variety of default sections such as top news and sports. Users can tweak what they see by adding keywords and topics they want to read more about. Like a newspaper or magazine, stories in Editions are ranked in importance by their size on the page. The difference is that it uses software rather than human editors to achieve this.

From Herald staff and news services