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Mon. Sep. 17, 2012 Alex Krieger has been appointed to the US Commission of Fine Arts President Barack Obama has appointed Alex Krieger to be a member of the US Commission of Fine Arts, his firm said Monday. Krieger is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and he is a founding principal of the architecture and urban design firm Chan Krieger Sieniewicz, which is now part of the firm NBBJ. The commission advises the federal government and the District of Columbia “on matters of design and aesthetics, as they affect the Federal interest and preserve the dignity of the nation’s capital.”	Advertisement
AAA: Mass. gas prices rise 10 cents a gallon, reach highest price ever for September The average price for gas in Massachusetts was $3.909 a gallon in the latest weekly AAA survey, the highest price ever for September and 10 cents higher than last week’s average, AAA Southern New England said Monday. Massachusetts prices have risen 17 cents a gallon over the past month. The current national average is $3.86 a gallon. A year ago at this time, the Massachusetts average price was $3.62.
Alliance Data will provide Talbots with credit-card and loyalty-program services Alliance Data Systems Corp. said Monday that it will provide private label credit card services for Talbots Inc., the struggling Hingham-based retailer of apparel and accessories designed for middle-age career women. Dallas-based Alliance Data Systems also said it purchased Talbots’ credit-card loans portfolio, which it valued at $145 million. Talbots recently agreed to be taken private by the New York investment firm Sycamore Partners.
Abrams reports on hedge fund Abrams Capital Management, one of Boston’s largest hedge fund firms, has raised $2.9 billion for its Abrams Capital Partners II fund, according to a filing with federal securities regulators.
Joule Unlimited Technologies partners with automaker Audi Joule Unlimited Technologies Inc., a Bedford company focused on commercializing sustainable, carbon-neutral fuels, said Monday that it has formed a strategic partnership with automaker Audi AG that includes an undisclosed investment in a Joule demonstration plant in New Mexico. Under the partnership, Audi will help Joule in its goal to commercialize Sunflow E and Sunflow D, sustainable transportation fuels designed for the ethanol and diesel markets. Those fuels are derived from sunlight and waste carbon dioxide.
The Warren Group: Foreclosure activity slows in Massachusetts Lenders initiated 1,198 foreclosure proceedings in Massachusetts in July, the lowest monthly level recorded so far this year, the Warren Group said Monday. The number of starts fell nearly 17 percent when compared with the total from July 2011. Completed foreclosures in July also dropped about 17 percent on a year-to-year comparison basis. “It appears there is a downward trend in foreclosure activity,” the Warren Group chief executive Timothy M. Warren Jr. said in a statement.
AB Sciex unveils biologics initiative AB Sciex, a Framingham company focused on life sciences analytical technologies, unveiled a global initiative focused on biologics Monday. This new initiative is in response to the fundamental shift of the pharmaceutical industry into biopharmaceutical development. The company said it is looking to develop and shape new software solutions that directly address the needs and requirements for this new frontier of drug discovery .
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan supports Federal Reserve’s stimulus plan Bank of America Corp. chief executive Brian Moynihan Friday praised the Federal Reserve’s decision to launch a new effort to pump money into the nation’s ailing economy. “They are trying to get the economy moving,” said Moynihan in a brief interview. “It’s the right decision because it’s working.” The Fed pledged Thursday to buy $40 billion in mortgage-bond bonds every month from large banks and other dealers in an effort to help free up capital and spur lending.
IDC: Mobile ad revenues to jump to $14.2b in 2014 Worldwide mobile ad revenues will jump from nearly $8 billion this year to $14.2 billion in 2014, according to Karsten Weide, a vice president with IDC, a market intelligence firm headquartered in Framingham. Data from eMarketer notes that only 1 percent of marketing dollars was devoted to mobile even though US adults spend an average of 10 percent of their time on mobile devices per day.
Akamai acquires FastSoft Akamai Technologies Inc., an Internet content delivery company headquartered in Cambridge, said that it has acquired FastSoft Inc., a provider of content acceleration software. Akamai did not disclose the purchase price in its press release, but did describe the deal as a cash transaction. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on Akamai’s financials.
Reinhart Foodservice agrees to buy AGAR Supply Co. of Taunton AGAR Supply Co., a Taunton-based company that boasts that it is the largest independent food-service supply distribution in New England, has agreed to be acquired by Reinhart Foodservice LLC of Illinois, Reinhart announced Friday. No financial details of the transaction were disclosed. AGAR chief executive Karen Bressler said that it makes sense for a regional company such as AGAR to “combine with a larger business such as Reinhart.”
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