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Tue. May. 22, 2012 Massachusetts home prices increase modestly in April Median prices for single family homes in Massachusetts increased modestly in April, marking the first jump in seven months, and igniting cautious hope in the real estate industry that the state’s years-long housing downturn is coming to an end. Median home prices rose 1.1 percent to $275,000 in April compared to $272,000 during the same time last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Warren Group, a Boston company that tracks local real estate.	Advertisement
EMC buys Syncplicity for undisclosed amount EMC Corp., the Hopkinton-based data storage giant, said Tuesday that it has acquired privately held Syncplicity Inc., a California company specializing in cloud-based file management services. Terms of the transaction were not released. Syncplicity’s services help its customers to manage, sync, share, and back up files, EMC said in a press release.
Houghton Mifflin wins conditional bankruptcy loan approval Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., the publisher of authors from Mark Twain to J.R.R. Tolkien, won conditional permission to borrow $400 million of a $500 million loan to fund operations during a 30-day reorganization. US Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber in New York said Tuesday that he was prepared to approve the Boston company’s interim request to borrow. The loan is to be managed and syndicated by Citigroup Inc. The publisher sought bankruptcy protection Monday to eliminate more than $3 billion in debt.
Is traffic down? Study says so. In gridlock rankings, Hub is 9th, behind LA & NYC. A local commuter stuck on the turnpike might be skeptical, but when it comes to gridlock and heavy traffic, Boston ranks a mere ninth among US cities, according to a new study from Inrix. Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York top the list for bad traffic congestion, said Inrix, a company that provides traffic data to auto manufacturers and companies that operate truck fleets.
Yottaa closes $9m in funding Yottaa Inc., a Boston-based company providing Web optimization services, said Tuesday that it has closed $9 million in Series B funding. All existing investors, including General Catalyst Partners, Stata Venture Partners, and Cambridge West Ventures, returned for this round and were joined by additional undisclosed investors. Yottaa describes its offering as an “easy-to-use cloud service that brings speed, scale, and security” to a business customer’s website.
Dennis Molnar is the new CEO of Paratek Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced Tuesday that Dennis Molnar has been appointed president and chief executive; he succeeds Thomas J. Bigger, who resigned earlier this year. Molnar was previously Paratek’s vice president for corporate development. Boston-based Paratek also announced that Evan Loh, a former R&D executive at Pfizer and Wyeth, has joined the company as chief medical officer and as chairman of the board of directors.  Former chairman, Dr. Walter Gilbert, will continue to serve on the board as vice chairman.
Brookstone chooses Golf Town founder as its new chief executive Brookstone has tapped Stephen Bebis, founder of Golf Town, as the new chief executive of the New Hampshire electronics chain. Bebis spent 14 years as founder, president and chief executive of Golf Town, the largest specialty golf retailer in Canada with 57 locations that recently announced plans to acquire US rival Golfsmith. “We were impressed by Stephen’s track record as an entrepreneur, his hands-on experience as a manager and mentor at the highest levels in the retail industry, and his ability to drive growth and achieve market leadership,” said Jackson Tai, chairman of Brookstone’s Board of Directors and interim president and chief Executive Officer since January 2012. Brookstone’s previous leader, Ron Boire, left the company in January to join Sears Holdings Corp. as its chief merchandising officer.
Lahey Clinic’s parent company names a former top hospital regulator as its general counsel Lahey Health System, corporate parent of Lahey Clinic in Burlington and its newly merged partner Northeast Health System in Beverly, has named former top hospital regulator David G. Spackman as general counsel and senior vice president of governmental affairs. Spackman joins Lahey Health System from the law firm McDermott Will & Emery LLP, where he has worked as a lawyer in its health industry advisory practice group for the past year.
AT&T amps up TD Garden network so fans can tweet and text faster Just in time for a Celtics play-off basketball game Monday night, AT&T said it is throwing the switch on a network upgrade that will expand mobile Internet coverage at TD Garden, the arena where the Celtics play their home games. One problem at a game is that many fans tend to tweet all at once --- after a spectacular play, for example. That can overwhelm a wireless network. AT&T’s newly installed Distributed Antenna System is designed to allow for massive simultaneous tweeting.
AAA: Mass. gas prices fall another 6 cents a gallon The average price for gas in Massachusetts is $3.659 a gallon in the latest weekly AAA survey, down 6 cents from the previous week’s average, AAA Southern New England said Monday. It is the fifth straight week of decreases. The current national average price is $3.68 a gallon. A year ago at this time, the Massachusetts average price was $3.88.
Music downloading damages against BU student Joel Tenenbaum left intact by US Supreme Court The US Supreme Court left intact a $675,000 jury verdict against a college student who downloaded and redistributed thousands of songs from the Internet without paying. The court, without comment, refused to hear Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum’s challenge to a law that let the recording industry collect thousands of dollars from individuals for such downloading. The jury was told to impose damages, set by U.S. copyright law, of between $750 and $150,000 per violation. Jurors set a rate of $22,500 for each of 30 songs he downloaded.
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