Massachusetts officials said Thursday that $67 million in state and federal funding and tax credits has been designated to build and preserve 23 affordable-housing developments in 21 communities. Whole Foods Market co-chief executive John Mackey, known for his outspoken style, says business in the US is “under attack.” Speaking at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast Thursday, Mackey said businesses are often unfairly maligned. “The latest Gallup poll shows big business enjoys only a 19 percent approval rating,” he told an audience at the Seaport World Trade Center. “Yet business is fundamentally good and has created more value in the world than any other institution.” The New York Times Co., which owns newspapers and news websites including The Boston Globe and Boston.com, reported a big jump in fourth-quarter profit Thursday, largely because of gains from asset sales, according to The New York Times newspaper website. Net income was $176.9 million, or $1.14 a share, a 200 percent increase from $58.9 million, or 39 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance is celebrating its four-year sponsorship of Team USA with kick-off ceremonies Thursday that include such famous Olympic athletes as Aly Raisman, Michelle Kwan, and Mike Eruzione. Why the timing? Because exactly one year from today the Winter Olympics are scheduled to start in Sochi, Russia. Liberty Mutual is also a Team USA sponsor for the 2016 summer games in Brazil. DataXu, a Boston company that makes digital marketing software, said Thursday that it has closed a $27 million round of funding. The investment was led by Thomvest Ventures. All three current major investors – Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners and Menlo Ventures – participated in the round, DataXu said in its press release. Since its founding in 2009, the company has raised a total of $65 million. TJX Cos., the Framingham retailer that operates such chains as T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, said Thursday that its same-store sales for January rose 3 percent on a year-to-year comparison basis. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, are considered a good indicator of a retailer’s performance. TJX also said it’s raising its outlook for fourth quarter earnings per share to be about $.80-$.81, a 29 percent to 31 percent increase over last year. Dyax Corp. of Burlington is partnering with CVie Therapeutics as part of plan to make Dyax’s hereditary angioedema drug available in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. The drug, Kalbitor, is currently marketed in United States for the treatment of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema, or HAE, in patients 16 years of age and older. According to Dyax’s website, HAE is a rare disease of the immune system, affecting an estimated 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 50,000 people around the world. | 
| |
