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Wed. Feb. 29, 2012 Celtic Greg Stiemsma will cheer on Hancock Tower race that benefits MS Boston Celtics rookie Greg Stiemsma will be on hand at a Saturday MS fund-raising event that features a race to the top of Boston’s Hancock Tower. The race will benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. People who have agreed to participate in the “MS Climb to the Top” event include Celtics managing partner and co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and strength-and- conditioning coach Bryan Doo. The race is sponsored by Normandy Real Estate Partners and Boston Properties.	Advertisement
Boston website launches hotel search engine for reserving blocks of rooms A new Boston-based travel website is aiming to take the hassle out of booking a block of hotel rooms for meetings, family reunions, weddings, sports teams, and other group getaways. Groupize.com, which launches today, allows users to search for and reserve up to 25 rooms at once at more than 25,000 hotels across the country. The person making the reservation can designate the type of group and if guests will need meeting space or meals at the hotel, then invite guests to customize the type of room they want and pay with their own credit cards.
CHR: Renters snap up new apartments in Norwood Chestnut Hill Realty, a real estate company also known as CHR, said it was able to lease 54 new apartments in Norwood within three months of those apartments going on the market, another sign of a tight rental market in Greater Boston. During the fourth quarter of 2011, the vacancy rate for the local rental market dropped to a nine-year low of 4 percent, and rents were at record highs.
iRobot is launching new emerging technology division Bedford-based iRobot Corp. is implementing a reorganization that will create a new emerging technology division at the company, in addition to the more established businesses focusing on home robots like the Roomba and military robots like the Packbot. The company is also naming a new chief operating officer: Jeff Beck. Chief executive Colin Angle says that no jobs will be lost as part of the reorg. The company laid off about 55 employees last October, anticipating a drop in its military revenues.
State Street investor confidence index falls An investor confidence index maintained by State Street Global Markets posted a February reading of 86.5, down 6.1 points from January’s revised level of 92.6. The decline was steepest among North American investors, whose confidence fell 9.5 points to 80.5, its lowest reading in more than three years, said State Street Global Markets, the investment research and trading arm of State Street Corp. Headquartered in Boston, State Street is a financial services company.
Staples 4Q net income rises 3 percent Staples Inc., the office-supply giant based in Framingham, said its fourth quarter net income increased 3 percent on a year-over-year basis to $284 million. Fourth quarter sales rose 1 percent to $6.5 billion when compared with the same period a year ago, Staples said in a press release. For the full year of 2011, company sales increased 2 percent to $25 billion. Net income rose 12 percent to $985 million.
Betty White and Slash star in new LA Zoo ads from Allen & Gerritsen Watertown ad agency Allen & Gerritsen said that TV ads it created to promote the Los Angeles Zoo’s “Living Amphibians, Invertebrates, and Reptiles” exhibit are ready to air. While the reptiles and amphibians are the stars, the ads cast actress Betty White and Slash in important supporting roles. (Rock ‘n’ roller Slash may be best known for his work with the band Guns N’ Roses.) The marketing campaign looks to build and expand the exhibit’s awareness through efforts that include TV, video, print, and out-of-home media.
Alere agrees to buy eScreen Alere Inc., a Waltham-based company that provides health management services, said today that it has agreed to buy eScreen Inc., a technology firm that specializes in toxicology screening and employee health products and services. The purchase price is $270 million and potential additional payments of up to $70 million, Alere said. Kansas-based eScreen had 2011 revenues of about $120 million. Among the services it offers are urine drug screens.
One United Bank takes steps to foreclose on Roxbury church More than a year into a legal battle with a famous black Boston church, OneUnited Bank is taking steps to foreclose on the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church, its customer of several years. OneUnited last week ran a notice in a Boston newspaper announcing that it plans to auction off the historic Roxbury church. That was how the church learned of the bank’s intentions, said the Rev. Gregory G. Groover Sr.
Sanofi leader to address BC’s Chief Executives’ Club Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive of French drug maker Sanofi SA, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Boston College’s Chief Executives’ Club of Boston luncheon March 6. Last year, Sanofi acquired Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp., one of the largest biotechnology companies in Massachusetts, for $20.1 billion. Besides an update on the Genzyme purchase, Viehbacher is scheduled to discuss current and future innovations in the world-wide pharmaceutical and health care industry.
Massachusetts economy expected to grow modestly, but risks loom, economists say The Massachusetts economy should grow modestly this year and slowly bring down the unemployment -- provided energy prices and the European debt crisis don’t spin out of control, a group of leading local economists said. The economists noted a number improving indicators that suggest the economic recovery will remain on track. Unemployment is down, production is up, and national economy is on the mend. But events beyond the state’s borders could derail the state’s recovery.
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