Boston booked record 108 conventions last year

State convention officials said that last year they booked 108 future Boston conventions and trade shows that will lead to a record 1.175 million nights' worth of hotel bookings. The events include 53 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, which completed its first full year of operations last year, and 55 at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center. The events represent a 48 percent increase over 2004 in hotel reservations and are expected to generate $33.2 million in city and state tax revenue. (Peter J. Howe)

See a list of major events booked during 2005

Raytheon to lead team bidding for US Army deal

Raytheon Co., Boeing Co., and IBM have formed an alliance to jointly bid for US Army computer services work. The five-year program has a value of as much as $20 billion, Waltham-based Raytheon said. Raytheon, which had total sales of $20.2 billion last year, will lead the team. Separately, Raytheon said it hired a former Air Force commander to lead its classified space programs. Lieutenant General Brian Arnold led the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles until he retired in July. In that job, he managed an annual budget of more than $10 billion that included rocket launches and major satellite systems. (Globe wire services)

Biogen says Tysabri may return to market this year

Biogen Idec Inc. said its Tysabri multiple sclerosis medicine, suspended in 2005 after being linked to an often fatal nervous system disease, may return to the market this year. Biogen chief executive James Mullen discussed the drug, which it sells with Irish partner Elan Corp., at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. US regulators may decide on Tysabri by the end of March, and Mullen said the company expects to reintroduce the product in the United States by mid-2006. Once returned to the market, Tysabri may generate annual sales of $1 billion by 2010, said JP Morgan analyst Ronald Renaud. (Bloomberg)

THE NATION
Genentech earnings meet analysts' expectations

Genentech Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit climbed 64 percent amid rising demand for the biotechnology leader's cancer-fighting drugs. The company said it earned $339.2 million, or 32 cents per share, during the final three months of 2005. That compared with net income of $206.6 million, or 19 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Revenue for the period totaled $1.89 billion, a 44 percent increase from the previous year. If not for expenses for items that didn't affect its ongoing operations, Genentech said it would have earned 34 cents per share. That figure matched the average estimate among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. (AP)

Marsh & McLennan unit plans 'aggressive' hiring

The insurance brokerage unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos. will be ''aggressive" in hiring after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's bid-rigging allegations triggered defections last year, the unit's chief executive said. ''We are going to be very proactive in recruiting who we consider to be the biggest impact players in the industry," said Brian Storms, chief executive of Marsh Inc. Marsh & McLennan, the world's largest insurance broker, yesterday hired James Pierce from competitor Jardine Lloyd Thompson PLC, Ken Fong from investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Joseph Varnas from wealth manager UBS AG. Pierce was made chairman of global marine and energy insurance, Fong became chief human resources officer, and Varnas was appointed global head of operations and information technology. (Bloomberg)

Home prices expected to rise 5% to 6% this year

The nation's largest real estate trade group says the housing market will likely return to a more normal rate of growth this year. The National Association of Realtors sees the median price for all types of previously owned homes rising 5.1 percent in 2006 to $219,700. It's estimated that prices soared nearly 13 percent last year to a median $209,100. For new homes, the median price is expected to rise 6 percent to $245,200 after increasing 4.6 percent to $231,300 in 2005. All of this may be determined by interest rates. The realtors expect the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to rise to 6.7 percent in the second half of the year. (AP)

Gaming company to spend $1b to build Miss. casinos

Harrah's Entertainment Inc., the world's largest gaming company, will invest more than $1 billion to build two casinos in Biloxi, Miss., according to Mayor A.J. Holloway. Anthony Sanfilippo, president of Harrah's operations in the central United States, said his company will soon make a formal declaration of its plans, according to The Sun Herald of Biloxi. (AP)