Study ranks Mass. 1st on economic competitiveness

Massachusetts is at the top in economic competitiveness nationwide, a report concludes. The state moved from second place to first in the latest edition of the Beacon Hill Institute's Competitiveness Report. Throughout the report's eight-year existence, the Bay State has never ranked lower than third and has usually been first or second. Two years ago, the state ranked third. Massachusetts improved its ranking in part through its strong showings in the human resources, technology, business incubation, and security sectors. It also rose from ninth to first in a measurement of the number of residents with health insurance coverage. The report is based on an index created through an amalgam of statistics, sometimes collected during different years, and by widely differing sources such as the government and special interest groups. (AP)

NitroMed Inc., the Lexington company that marketed a heart medicine for blacks called BiDil, is attempting to reinvent itself. The company, which recently unveiled plans to sell the rights to BiDil, its only approved drug, said it will merge in the second quarter of 2009 with Archemix Corp., a small, privately held Cambridge biotechnology company that's developing drugs for blood-related diseases. The combined company will be called Archemix. Its chief executive will be NitroMed's current CEO, Kenneth Bate. Archemix shareholders will own 70 percent of the new company; NitroMed shareholders will own the rest. The company will be based in Cambridge and expects to have $50 million to $60 million in cash after the sale of BiDil. (Todd Wallack)

Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., the world's second-largest distributor of soft drinks, cut its 2008 earnings forecast and said it will eliminate 4.6 percent of its workforce in North America and Europe. The company will cut 3,150 jobs - 2,200 in Mexico, 750 in the United States and Canada, and the rest in Europe - and close three bottling plants and 30 distribution centers. Earnings per share will be $2.20 to $2.26 this year, down from the $2.32 to $2.38 the company forecast in June. Profit has been squeezed by higher costs for energy, resin for plastic bottles, and corn-based sweetener. After taxes, the bottler will record costs of 27 to 32 cents a share in the fourth quarter for the cuts. (Bloomberg)

The casual clothing retailer Steve & Barry's is set to disclose this week that it will go out of business, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing two people familiar with the situation. A company spokesman declined to comment. Bay Harbour Management LC, a private equity firm in New York that acquired 175 of the company's stores, has hired a liquidation firm to handle the chain's going-out-of-business sale, the newspaper said, adding that about 5,000 employees will be let go. Harold Kahn, hired in mid-October to run the revamped chain, is no longer with Steve & Barry's, the paper said, citing a person familiar with the situation. (Reuters)

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has kept in place a regulation that allows truck drivers to stay on the road for 11 consecutive hours, rather than limit it to 10. Administrator John Hill said there was no evidence that the safety of travelers is jeopardized by having truckers on the road for 11 hours. Safety advocates, however, say the industry is putting the public at risk by allowing truckers to drive too many hours. The industry's main trade group, the American Trucking Association, has been a proponent of maintaining the 11-hour limit. A spokeswoman said the ATA was pleased with the decision and said that the current safety rules, established in 2004, have resulted in safer highways. (AP)

Basketball team owner Mark Cuban responded to insider trading charges on his website, saying that he had not agreed in 2004 to keep information about a proposed stock sale confidential. The response, posted at blogmaverick.com, disputes a Securities and Exchange Commission allegation that he acted on nonpublic information to avoid more than $750,000 in losses when he sold his stake in the Canadian Internet search engine Mamma.com. Cuban's legal team, writing on his behalf on his website, cited an excerpt from an interview it conducted with Mamma's former chief executive, Guy Faure, as evidence Cuban had not agreed to any confidentiality arrangement. (Reuters)