Stone & Webster gets $63 million pact
BOSTON – Stone & Webster Inc. announced that it has been awarded a $63 million contact for design and engineering services in the construction of a bus repair and training center for the New York City Transit Authority. Stone & Webster will be a subcontractor working under Halmar Builders of New York. The building will be for the repair, overhaul and refurbishing of the city’s bus transit fleet. It will also have classrooms for training and laboratory space.
Putnam, Lee form partnership
BOSTON – Putnam Investments and the Thomas H. Lee Co. have formed a partnership to offer institutional investors an alternative. Putnam is the fourth largest mutual fund manager, but its profits fell in 1998, and observers speculate that by linking with Lee, one of the most successful investment companies, Putnam hopes to attract new investors and hold on to its most affluent customers. In the partnership, Putnam will have a 25 percent share, while Lee will hold the rest. T.H. Lee will be the chairman and chief executive of the new investment company, TH Lee, Putnam Capital. Meanwhile Putnam will invest a minority stake in the Lee Co., which will be called Thomas H. Lee Partners.
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Stride Rite gets new leadership
LEXINGTON – James A. Eskridge resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of Stride Rite, Inc., and was quickly replaced by Myles J.Slosberg, the grandson of the company’s founder. Slosberg, 62, was named interim chairman and chief executive. Eskridge was reported by the Boston Globe to have clashed with the company’s board of directors over the company’s strategy. Only seven months ago he had joined the company from California where he had been an executive for Mattel. Slosberg said he would form a search committee to find a permanent successor to Eskridge, who was highly regarded on Wall Street for his aggressive acquisitions plans.
Brooks Automation to acquire Smart Machines
CHELMSFORD – Brooks Automation, Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Smart Machines Inc. of San Jose, Calif., a manufacturer of vacuum and atmospheric process tool automation systems. Terms were not disclosed. After the acquisition is completed, Smart Machines will be responsible for manufacturing, development and marketing of new atmospheric direct drive robots and atmospheric integrated systems. Brooks will continue to design, manufacture and market all vacuum cluster tool robots, cluster tool systems, and existing high-end wet and dry robots.
Lycos trying on-line auctions to boost sales
WALTHAM – Lycos, Inc. is moving into the on-line auction service in competition with its rivals, eBay and Yahoo and in an attempt to boost sales. Lycos announced in May that it was purchasing a stake in FairMarket Inc., an on-line auctioneer. The number three on-line search engine service, Lycos announced that it planned to charge sellers a percentage of the cost of any item sold through the service, but would waive the fees for the first three months in order to attract sellers. There is no fee for buyers.
Times appoints new publisher at the Globe
BOSTON — The New York Times named senior vice president Richard H. Gilman as publisher of The Boston Globe. Gilman succeeds publisher Benjamin B. Taylor, who will remain chairman of the Globe Newspaper Company Board. The move is effective immediately. Gilman, 48, has been senior vice president of operations for The New York Times since 1993. He has, at various times, overseen production, systems and technology, the development of plant facilities and circulation. Besides his business experience, he worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for more than a decade. He began his career as a reporter at
The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, and rose to assistant managing editor.
Bumper cranberry crop dismays growers
WAREHAM — Despite a dry start to the season, Massachusetts cranberry growers are expecting a bumper crop. That’s not good news for growers, though. Cranberry crops are expected to yield more than 2 million barrels this year — at least 300,000 more than last year — adding to the glut that drives prices down, The Herald News of Fall River reported. The price of fresh cranberries will remain the same, experts say. However, most berries are not used fresh. They are frozen and then purchased for juices. A portion of last year’s crop is still frozen in storage, and part of the 1999 crop also is expected to wind up in storage.
Dairy officials to pay fine for filing false tests
BOSTON — A Sharon dairy and two of its former officials have agreed to pay $225,000 to settle civil charges of submitting false bacteria tests to the local board of health. Crescent Ridge Dairy, former president Robert Parrish and former treasurer Stanley Parrish were alleged to have deleted or withheld at least 51 elevated bacteria counts from the Sharon Board of Health, which licenses the company’s ice cream production. The state attorney general’s office charged the dairy with concealing the high coliform bacteria counts over a period of five years. It also maintained the company told its testing lab, Microbac Laboratories of Clinton, not to file its original, accurate reports, saying it would do it instead. The alleged deletions were violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act. High bacteria counts won’t necessarily make customers sick, but indicate sanitation problems.
