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Thu. Mar. 15, 2012 National Grid: Bills should go down for natural gas customers An abundance of natural gas supplies should result in bills going down for National Grid’s natural gas customers in Massachusetts, the company said Thursday. For its residential customers, lower prices caused by that abundance should translate into a drop of about $6 in their monthly bills, the company said. If approved, the new rate would go into effect in May and run through October.	Advertisement
Demandware surges in trading debut after initial offering Demandware Inc., the e-commerce software provider that counts Barneys New York and Crocs Inc. as customers, surged as much as 63 percent in its trading debut after selling shares for more than planned in an initial public offering. The stock rose 50 percent to $23.97 at 11:25 a.m. in New York trading after earlier climbing to $26. Demandware, based in Burlington, sold 5.5 million shares at $16 apiece yesterday. The company earlier offered the shares at $12.50 to $14.50 each. Demandware’s programs help retailers create and manage websites where they can sell their products.
Direct Air passengers have refund options, says Department of Transportation The US Department of Transportation has issued several options for passengers seeking refunds from Direct Air, which has suspended operations for two months. The department is advising passengers to contact a new toll-free phone number set up by the airline and request a refund, with proof of their travel purchase, from the airline, as well as from its escrow bank and surety bond company. Refunds can also be obtained from the consumer’s credit card company.
iRobot introduces new floor washing robots Bedford’s iRobot Corp. is expanding its line of Scooba floor washing Robots. The compact Scooba 230 is being introduced to such markets as Europe, and it was developed to meet the need for a robot that cleans tight spaces, such as in bathrooms and kitchens. The company is also upgrading its iRobot Scooba 390, a floor washing robot designed for bigger jobs. The Scooba 390 has a 30 percent longer battery life than its predecessors.
Shire drops after pulling US application for rare-disease drug primarily made in Cambridge Shares of Shire PLC, an Irish drugmaker with a big presence in Massachusetts, fell in London trading after withdrawing a US application for approval of the ITS Replagal drug for a rare genetic disorder. The Food and Drug Administration will require additional trials of Replagal before approving it as a treatment for Fabry disease. Replagal is primarily made at a Shire facility in Cambridge. Separately, Shire agreed to buy FerroKin BioSciences of California. (Please see previous post.)
Shire agrees to buy FerroKin BioSciences Shire PLC, an Irish drugmaker with 1,384 full-time employees in Massachusetts, said it has agreed to buy FerroKin BioSciences Inc. of California. The deal will include an upfront payment of $100 million, plus conditional milestone payments of up to $225 million, Shire said. FerroKin BioSciences is focused on developing medicines used to manage iron for the treatment of disease. Last month, Shire said it got the approval of European regulators to make a Gaucher disease drug at its $200 million facility in Lexington.
That’s fishy: Feds fight fraud in seafood sizes Those plump scallops might be a lot smaller than they look -- a sodium-based compound can bloat scallops past their actual size. And that pollock fillet isn’t such a good deal if the price includes the layers of ice glazed onto it to keep it fresh. This “overglazing” rips off consumers, as does so-called “soaking” of scallops. At the International Seafood Show in Boston this week, a top federal seafood quality officer announced his agency was increasing efforts to stop these and other types of seafood fraud.
Panjiva: Stout shipments surge as St. Patrick’s Day draws nigh St. Patrick’s Day is Saturday, and saloonkeepers and publicans may be stocking up on stout in advance of the revelry. According to Panjiva Inc., stout shipments to the United States were up nearly 25 percent in January and February when compared to the same period a year ago. Panjiva uses technologies developed by a computer scientist at MIT to analyze bills of lading for ships bringing goods to the United States.
Charles Street AME support protest planned Activists trying to save the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church from foreclosure said they plan to go forward with their plan to protest OneUnited Bank on Thursday if the bank does not back off its threat to foreclose on the historic church.
Ben & Jerry’s renames ice cream flavor to support gay marriage in the UK Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., a Vermont company known for quirky ice cream flavors and a social agenda, is noting on its British website that it has renamed an old flavor “Apple-y Ever After!” to show support for gay marriage. The move comes as the British government debates whether to legalize same-sex marriage. Several years ago, the company did something similar when gay marriage legislation was being debated in Vermont. In that case, the company renamed its “Chubby Hubby” flavor “Hubby Hubby.”
Georgia lottery players biggest suckers; Mass. players biggest winners Massachusetts players were the biggest lottery winners, getting back almost 72 cents on the dollar, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg. Georgia’s lottery players are the biggest suckers in a nation buying more than $50 billion a year in tickets for state-run games, which have the worst odds of any form of legal gambling.
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