SBA opens its first bilingual center
LAWRENCE – The U.S. Small Business Administration has opened its first bilingual information center in this city. The Small Business Resource Center will be staffed by two full-time Spanish-speaking business advisers to serve this city of 60,000 where three-fifths of the population is Latin American and most new businesses are Spanish-language based. A library in the center will include business software and books in both English and Spanish. The center is financed with $240,000 from the Lawrence Community Development Block Grant program.
SatCon Technology acquires new unit
CAMBRIDGE – SatCon Technology Corp. has acquired Northrop Grumman Corp.’s power electronics business unit. The acquisition involves 570,000 of SatCon’s common shares as well as warrants to purchase an additional 200,000 shares. The NG unit produces power electronics, controllers and motors for electric and hybrid vehicle power- trains, as well as microturbine power generation and energy storage products.
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Raytheon reports subpoena by Customs
LEXINGTON – Raytheon Co. reported that it had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Customs Service regarding the proposed sale to Pakistan by Raytheon’s Canadian subsidiary of electronic equipment used to bounce signals off the earth’s atmosphere. In a statement, Raytheon, which said it was “cooperating fully” with Customs’ investigation, said the system in question is used for commercial not military purposes. The United States has restricted sales of military equipment to both Pakistan and India because of nuclear testing last year by the two countries.
Bayer buys Cambridge diagnostic business
CAMBRIDGE – Oncogene Science Diagnostics of this city has been sold to Bayer Corp. by OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $11 million, OSI reported. Under terms of the sale, Bayer will retain all of Oncogene’s employees and continue its Massachusetts operation. OSI said that since further development of Oncogene would require further investment and since OSI’s primary interest is in drug development, the company decided to sell Oncogene to Bayer. For the last three years Bayer has been working with Oncogene in the development of a diagnostic test for breast cancer. Bayer makes and markets a breast cancer treatment drug.
Starwood Hotels wins race for convention hotel
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority board has awarded the rights to develop, build and operate a major hotel at the planned South Boston convention center to the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Starwood’s bid was unanimously accepted over that of Marriott International, Inc. The hotel will bear the Sheraton label and will pay annual rentals of an estimated $12.6 million over the 50-year period of the agreement. Marriott’s bid would have produced an estimated $8 million a year. Starwood proposed a 1,120-room hotel costing $264 million and agreed to open the hotel as the same time as the convention center opens.
Boston Medical Center, nurses reach agreement
BOSTON – Boston Medical Center and the Service Employees International Union local representing 650 nurses have reached agreement on a two-year contract that will mean an 11 percent wage increase for the nurses. The nurses had threatened to strike, asserting that their wages were significantly lower than those for registered nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The two parties also agreed to develop a joint committee to study ways to reduce the practice of “floating,” shifting nurses from one assignment to another.
Concord firm buys PalmPilot operation
CONCORD – Manufacturing Services Ltd., whose specialty is building products for electronics companies, announced that it has agreed to buy 3Com Corp.’s PalmPilot manufacturing operations in Salt Lake City, Utah. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but a spokesperson said all 550 of the Utah facility’s employees would be retained. Recently, 3Com announced its plans to license its PalmPilots operating software to Sony and Nokia, but in order to be more competitive agreed to “outsource” the manufacturing of its hand-held computer product.
Manufacturing up, wages higher in Boston
BOSTON – An industry coalition has reported that manufacturing jobs in Boston have increase by 2.1 percent from 1994 to 1998. Meanwhile, the report by the Greater Boston Manufacturing partnership stated, manufacturing wages grew 25.3 percent so that the annual factory wage reached $50,499. That figure is about $5,300 higher than the average of all private sector jobs, the report said. However, the report prepared by University of Massachusetts economists predicted job losses in manufacturing over the next five years, especially in technical instruments and apparel. The report said that the city’s 28,771 manufacturing jobs amounted to 5 percent of all of the city’s jobs. One-third of all the city’s manufacturing jobs are in printing and publishing, the report said.
