FleetBoston buying New Jersey bank
BOSTON – FleetBoston Financial Corp. announced it had agreed to acquire Summit Bancorp of Princeton, N.J. for an exchange of stock worth an estimated $7 billion. In acquiring Summit, FleetBoston increases its presence in New Jersey. Fleet is located in all the New England states except Vermont, as well as in New York and New Jersey. Summit, whose assets are listed at $39 billion, has 500 branches in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, including 27 branches in the Philadelphia area, acquired in August. Chad Gifford, FleetBoston’s president and chief operating officer, conceded in a story carried by the Boston Globe that there could be some layoffs and divestitures where Fleet’s and Summit’s branches overlap. FleetBoston, with its reported $181 billion in assets, claims to be the eighth largest financial holding company in the United States.
Boston Herald buying Community Newspapers
BOSTON – The Boston Herald announced that it is buying the Community Newspaper Co. from Fidelity Capital Inc., a division of Fidelity Investments, best known for its mutual funds management. In buying Community Newspapers, the Herald is acquiring 88 weekly newspapers in the Boston suburbs, plus four dailies, including the MetroWest Daily News published in Framingham and the Milford Daily News. The sale price was not disclosed. An attempt by the Herald to purchase the Quincy Patriot Ledger was set aside recently when the publisher of that newspaper pulled the paper off the market, asserting that he had recovered his health and there was no longer any need to sell the paper. The Herald is predicting a Nov. 1 completion date for its purchase of Community Newspapers.
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Keane sued by Philadelphia employees
BOSTON – Keane, Inc., an information technology company based here, is being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission for alleged discrimination toward and harassment of its black employees in its Philadelphia office. Keane is also accused of retaliating against those employees who complained about the alleged discrimination. The lawsuit which was filed in federal court in Boston alleges that since September 1997, Keane has discriminated against blacks by permitting racial epithets, assigning them fewer accounts and issuing their paychecks late. The suit seeks unspecified financial penalties and back pay. Keane denied all charges and a spokesman for the company said it would vigorously contest the suit.
Swedish clothing store coming to Boston
BOSTON – Hennes & Mauritz a Swedish clothing chain has signed a lease for 33,000 square feet of space in the former F.W.Woolworth building in Downtown Crossing, an owner of the space announced. It will occupy space most recently used by Foot Locker, a Woolworth company. H & M opened a store on Fifth Avenue in New York City last April, an event that brought shoppers lined up for blocks. The company operates 600 stores in 14 countries and sells fashionable clothing for men and women at what it describes affordable prices.
Stock repurchase approved for Firstfed
SWANSEA – The board of directors for Firstfed American Bancorp, the holding company for First Federal Savings Bank of America, Firstfed Insurance Agency and Firstfed Trust Co., N.A. has approved the company’s seventh stock repurchase program, authorizing the repurchase of five percent of outstanding shares, or 320,028 shares. Upon completion of the sale, which will depend on market conditions, 6,080,529 shares will remain outstanding.
Union workers at Raytheon vote to end strike
LEXINGTON – With the promise from Raytheon management of more jobs in Massachusetts, union workers voted to return to work over the weekend. Also negotiated, during the five-week strike by Local 1505 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers were improved health and pension benefits, the union announced. Raytheon had shed thousands of union jobs in Massachusetts in recent years, moved to Arizona or to low-cost non-union subcontractors, the
Boston Globe reported. Raytheon has been under pressure from the Pentagon to meet various contract deadlines. As part of its settlement Raytheon reportedly agreed to retain in Massachusetts its missile destruction work, the Theater High Altitude Area Defense System, which it has under $1.4 billion subcontract with Lockheed Martin Corp. Although that program only employs 200 in Massachusetts at the moment, a union spokesman told the Globe that it could grow to several thousand in years to come. Raytheon also agreed to retain a circuit card assembly center in Andover and invest money in a general assembly plant there.
MKS agrees to buy Applied Science
ANDOVER – MKS Instruments Inc., manufacturer of gas process control instruments for manufacturing has agreed to buy Applied Science & Technology, Inc. of Wilmington, Mass., for about $300 million in new stock, Bloomberg News reported. The stock will be exchanged for MKS shares, Bloomberg said. Applied Science, which has 600 employees, makes reactive gas solutions for the chip-making equipment industry. MKS’s devices control gas pressure in chambers where computer chips are made.
