Combat Zone project gets city's OK

Boston Scientific shares climb

Shares of Natick's Boston Scientific Corp., which seeks US approval of a drug-coated heart stent, rose 5.9 percent after a Dutch judge ruled its infringement on a related patent is limited to the Netherlands. Israeli device maker Medinol Ltd. had disputed four patents. The court agreed Boston Scientific's Express and Taxus drug-coated stents infringed on one in the Netherlands, a Boston Scientific spokesman said. Medinol had sought to extend the ruling to 16 European countries. The annual market for stents may reach $5 billion by 2005, analysts have estimated. The company's shares rose $1.98, to $35.78. (Bloomberg)

Open source software plan questioned

Kriss A Massachusetts State Senate committee has questioned the wisdom of a proposal that state government should use "open source" software in its computer systems, instead of traditional commercial programs made by companies like Microsoft Corp. In September, Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss issued a memo declaring open source software would be favored over "closed source" products in state software purchases. With open source software, users can modify the code, tailoring it to their needs. In addition, many open source products are available at no charge. But at yesterday's hearing of the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee, a number of senators said the plan might violate state law, which requires software and other goods to be purchased in an open-bidding process. "The existing law allows open source [software firms] to bid," said committee chairman Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, "but it also requires that all companies would be able to bid." He also complained that Kriss had set the policy without legislative approval. (Hiawatha Bray)

CTC Communications exits bankruptcy

CTC Communications Group Inc., a long-distance telephone service reseller, said it has completed the bankruptcy process that included a $32 million sale to private investment firm Columbia Ventures Corp. Waltham-based CTC filed in October 2002 in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., for Chapter 11 protection, citing assets of about $306 million and $394 million in debt. After Congress deregulated the telecommunications industry in 1996, firms like CTC tried to compete with larger providers such as Verizon Communications by building costly networks that ended up serving too few customers. (Bloomberg)

Raytheon names Swanson chairman

THE NATION

Motorola proceeding with unit spinoff

Zander A day after naming Ed Zander chairman and chief executive, Motorola Inc. proceeded with plans to spin off its semiconductor unit as a publicly traded firm. The company filed its registration statement for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the temporary name SPS Spinco Inc. The chip unit, or Semiconductor Products Sector, is Motorola's second-largest division, behind cellphones. Analysts have long called for Motorola to shed the money-losing unit. The division accounted for $1.5 billion of the company's $1.8 billion operating loss last year. Under the proposed transaction, the semiconductor unit would issue shares of its class A common stock. Following the IPO, Motorola would own all the outstanding shares of the new company's Class B common stock. (AP)

Oil prices soar on low inventories report

Crude futures prices surged, leaping to heights not seen since just before the US-led war in Iraq, as government inventory data revealed oil inventories had again dwindled to the lowest level ever recorded in December. January light, sweet crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled 46 cents higher at $33.35 a barrel, after touching $33.77 -- a high not seen since March 17, when crude prices reached $36.40 a barrel. US commercial crude oil inventories fell 5.1 million barrels, or 1.8 percent, to 272.8 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 12, amid a drop in crude imports, the Energy Department reported. That set a record low for December since the Energy Information Administration began collecting inventory data in 1982. (Dow Jones/AP)

Intel to develop chip for digital TVs

Intel Corp. plans to develop a chip that could lead to slimmer and cheaper rear-projection television sets. The move would fall in line with the computer industry's growing attraction to the consumer electronics market, where sales of digital TVs are soaring and profit margins are healthy but thinning as competition increases. A spokesman for Intel, the leading maker of computer microprocessors, would not comment. With its research and development heft, analysts say Intel could do for big-screen TVs what it did for personal computers: improve quality and substantially lower prices. The technology Intel has been eyeing is known as liquid crystal on silicon, or LCoS. A few companies have tried to introduce LCoS products, but haven't had great success. (AP)

SEC alleges fraud by 3 Genesco officials

Federal regulators accused three division officers at shoe marketer Genesco Inc. of fraudulently reporting 2001 sales figures. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Nashville that the executives, two of whom no longer work at the company, lied about last-minute shipments before the end of the fiscal year when faced with a revenue shortfall at the Johnston & Murphy shoe division. The actions allowed the company to improperly record $2.8 million in sales, the lawsuit charges. The SEC did not name the company as a defendant in the suit. The company had no comment, a spokeswoman said. (AP)

3d ex-Tyco official testifies against pair

A former Tyco International Ltd. executive testified he used company time to obtain personal insurance policies to cover homes, artwork, and yachts owned by L. Dennis Kozlowski, who was then chief executive. Gerald Goetz, who was in charge of risk management, told jurors at the fraud trial of Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz that he spent about 5 percent of his time lining up personal insurance for the two men and other top executives. Goetz said he did not know who paid the premiums. The bills were charged to Kozlowski and to Swartz's relocation loan accounts, he said. Tyco would pay the bill and log it as a debt owed by the executive to the company, he said. (Bloomberg)