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Tue. May. 01, 2012 Rep. James Vallee joins Nixon Peabody law firm Massachusetts State Representative James E. Vallee has joined the Boston office of Nixon Peabody LLP as counsel, the law firm said. Vallee, a Democrat from Franklin, will work with attorneys in the firm’s Real Estate and Government Relations & Public Policy practices. During his career in the Massachusetts Legislature, Vallee has served as majority leader, as a member of the Committee on Ways and Means and, mostly recently, as House chairman of the Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs.	Advertisement
US attorney: Watertown man is charged with $1.1m theft from Iron Mountain A Watertown man was charged in federal court with allegations that he stole more than $1.1 million from his former employer, Iron Mountain Inc., the office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said Tuesday. John J. Palandjian, 34, was charged with 10 counts of wire fraud. As an Iron Mountain employee, Palandjian used a company credit card to make unauthorized purchases and take cash advances, Ortiz’s office alleges. An attempt to reach Palandjian was unsuccessful.
Business confidence index rose in April A statewide business confidence index posted a 57.7 reading for April, the best monthly reading since August 2007 and up 2.3 points from the March reading. The monthly index, which uses a 100-point scale, is maintained by Associated Industries of Massachusetts, or AIM, an association of Massachusetts employers. “The economy has returned to health by some standards, but it has not regained its strength by any means,” Raymond G. Torto, chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors, said in a statement.
Thermo Fisher Scientific buys Doe & Ingalls Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., a Waltham-based maker of laboratory instruments, said Tuesday that it has acquired Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, a provider of specialty production chemicals and customized supply-chain services to the life sciences and micro-electronics industries. The purchase price was about $175 million in cash. Doe & Ingalls is based in North Carolina and generated 2011 revenue of roughly $110 million.
Globe circulation grows for the first time since 2004 The Boston Globe said Tuesday that its paid circulation has grown for the first time since September of 2004, based on numbers released by the an independent auditor of newspaper circulation. Average Sunday circulation was 365,512 for the six month period that ended in March, up 2.5 percent for the same period a year ago. Average daily circulation rose 2.9 percent. The numbers reflect both print circulation and digital subscriptions to the company’s new website, BostonGlobe.com, which was launched in mid-October.
Rockland Trust agrees to buy Central Bank for $54.8m The parent of Rockland Trust Co. has agreed to buy Central Bank in a deal valued at $54.8 million as Rockland Trust looks to increase its presence in Middlesex County. Rockland Trust, whose corporate parent is Independent Bank Corp. of Hanover, has about $5 billion in assets and 67 retail branches throughout Eastern Massachusetts and on Cape Cod. Central Bank has nine branches in such communities as Somerville, Arlington, Burlington, Chestnut Hill, Malden, Medford, Melrose, and Woburn.
KPMG will open Kendall Square office KPMG LLP, an audit, tax, and advisory firm, looks to expand its practice for early-stage technology and life science companies by leasing space for a new office in Kendall Square, a high-tech hub. The opportunity to be “part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem near MIT is very important to us,” Pat Canning, managing partner for KPMG’s Boston office, said. The new office of roughly two dozen people at One Broadway will be the home base of Ed Sullivan, who leads KPMG’s New England Venture Capital Practice.
Fidelity: 401(k) balances grew average 8% in 1Q Employee 401(k) accounts grew nearly 8 percent last quarter as a surging stock market boosted investment returns and worker contributions increased. Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest 401(k) administrator, said on Tuesday that the average balance among its nearly 12 million accountholders was $74,600 at the end of March. That’s up from $69,100 at the end of 2011. Boston-based Fidelity attributed about 80 percent of the increase to investment performance. Stocks rallied nearly 13 percent, the market’s best first-quarter performance since 1998.
Affiliated Managers Group CEO Sean Healey paid $14.9 million in 2011, down from nearly $20 million The chief executive of Affiliated Managers Group Inc., a Beverly investment firm, received $14.9 million in total compensation last year, down from nearly $20 million in 2010, according to an annual filing with regulators. Sean M. Healey, the husband of former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, earned the same base salary for the past three years, $750,000. He received a $5 million cash bonus in 2011, down from $7 million the prior year. He also last year received $4.5 million in stock awards, plus options and other compensation.
Massachusetts small business health insurance rates continue modest increases State regulators Monday said they approved third-quarter health insurance rates with average increases of 1.2 percent in the market serving small businesses and individuals, continuing a trend of more modest increases seen over the past three quarters. The new rates are in the Massachusetts “small group” market, which includes tens of thousands of small companies as well as self-employed and formerly uninsured individuals. They apply to policies taking effect on July 1, a smaller renewal period than the second quarter. For that period, health insurance premium increases averaged 1.9 percent.
Federal regulators suspend trading in the stock of bankrupt LocatePlus Holdings Federal regulators on Monday suspended trading in the stock of a bankrupt Beverly company, LocatePlus Holdings Corp., because, they said, it has not filed quarterly reports since March 2011. The company, which sells records online for investigative searches, was the subject of civil fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010. The charges involved alleged violations of antifraud, books and records laws, and are still pending. Last June, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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