Novell moves headquarters to Waltham

Novell Computer networking company Novell Inc. filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list its corporate headquarters as Waltham, instead of Provo, Utah, where the company was founded. "A substantial majority of Novell's executive offices are now located in Waltham," said Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry. "Novell's board meets there. It's appropriate that it be considered the headquarters." Novell's leadership has been located in Massachusetts since 2001, when the company acquired consulting firm Cambridge Technology Partners. Jack Messman, who headed Cambridge Technology, took over as Novell's chief executive and brought in his own Bay State-based management team. (Hiawatha Bray)

Fleet telemarketing settlement voided

FleetBoston Financial Corp.'s $3.1 million settlement of claims it illegally provided telemarketers with information about customers was thrown out by a US Appeals Court, which found the agreement "sold these 1.4 million claimants down the river." US Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, writing for the three-judge panel in Chicago, said the accord let the banking company's former mortgage unit off lightly and rewarded lawyers who brought the lawsuit at the expense of borrowers. The decision by the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals sends the case back to the trial court. (Bloomberg)

Verizon offers phone-Internet in R.I.

Verizon Communications Inc., which has dabbled in selling satellite television to compete with cable TV, launched a telephone-Internet bundle in Rhode Island that it expects to deploy across Massachusetts and northern New England by late March. Verizon said it expects that customers who buy a package of unlimited local and long distance calling, high-speed Net access, and DirecTV provided by Hughes Electronics will be able to save $20 a month off a comparable package from dominant Rhode Island cable TV provider Cox Communications. (Peter J. Howe)

Fidelity reopens fund closed in 1986

Fidelity Investments, the biggest US fund company, said it's opening the $2 billion Value Strategies fund to new investors who purchase it directly for the first time since 1986. The fund, managed by Harris Leviton at the Boston office, seeks out shares of medium-sized companies that are undervalued relative to the market. A version of the fund sold by investment advisers and brokers has been available. The move is intended to give customers "a relatively aggressive and contrarian value fund to complement our current line-up of seven retail funds benchmarked to value indexes," wrote Sanjiv Mirchandani, executive vice president of Fidelity Personal Investments, in an e-mailed statement. (Bloomberg)

Genzyme wins Japanese OK for Fabrazyme

Genzyme Corp. won Japanese approval for its Fabrazyme drug, which treats a rare enzyme deficiency called Fabry disease. There are several hundred patients in Japan who have the disease, the company said in a statement. Cambridge-based Genzyme said it would sell the drug as soon as the Japanese government sets a price. Small increases in the number of patients taking Fabrazyme are important because the treatment costs about $165,000 a year for the average patient. The medicine is already approved in the United States and Europe, and sales of Fabrazyme reached about $81 million last year, Genzynme said this month. (Bloomberg)

SkyTerra seeks American Tower unit

Verestar Inc., a bankrupt satellite communications provider owned by Boston's American Tower Corp., received a $7 million offer for its assets from SkyTerra Communications Inc., which will become the minimum bidder at an auction. SkyTerra would retain 80.1 percent of the reorganized company while giving 19.9 percent of the new shares to creditors, according to court papers filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. SkyTerra also has offered to employ at least 160 Verestar workers, court papers said. Pending court approval, Verestar plans to auction its assets March 30. American Tower, which owns broadcast and wireless communication towers, has invested $522 million in Verestar since 1996, court papers said. (Bloomberg)

Biogen Idec reports on Crohn's drug

Biogen Idec Inc., the world's third-biggest biotechnology company, and Elan Corp. said their Antegren medicine for Crohn's disease helped prevent flare-ups of bowel inflammation in a 428-patient study. The test found that patients with the intestinal disease who responded in an earlier Antegren trial benefited from continued treatment with the medicine, Cambridge-based Biogen Idec said. The companies failed to show a significant difference in the earlier trial between patients on Antegren and those taking a placebo. The new data may help the companies bolster their case for Food and Drug Administration approval of the drug, analysts said. (Bloomberg)

Harvard Business School, Gartner link

Harvard Business School Press said it will publish a cobranded series of professional handbooks for senior executives in partnership with Gartner Inc., the technology research firm based in Stamford, Conn. The series will tentatively be titled "The Gartner Growth Agenda: Leading and Managing Strategic Growth with Technology." Under their partnership, HBS Press will also distribute Gartner research reports.
(Robert Weisman)

THE NATION

Pixar ends agreement with Disney

Pixar Animation Studios, whose partnership with Walt Disney Co. generated such box-office hits as "Finding Nemo" and "Toy Story," ended the distribution agreement and said it will negotiate with other studios. The end of talks is a blow to Disney chief executive Michael Eisner, who faces calls to resign by former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold. Pixar CEO Steve Jobs has negotiated with other media companies, and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. studio said it would like to distribute Pixar films. Disney's own hand-drawn cartoon features have lagged, with "Treasure Planet" cutting profit in the 2002 fiscal year by $47 million. Eisner has relied on Pixar to generate as much as half his movie profit, an analyst said. Phone calls to Disney and Pixar weren't immediately returned. (Bloomberg)

Reward set up for catching virus author

Microsoft Corp. promised to pay $250,000 to anyone who helps authorities find and prosecute the author of a fast-spreading computer virus known as MyDoom.B. The reward is the third so far under a $5 million program Microsoft set up in early November to help US authorities nab authors of unusually damaging Internet infections aimed at consumers of the company's software products. (AP)

American Express, MBNA in alliance

American Express unveiled its first deal to allow a major American financial institution -- MBNA Corp. -- to issue its credit cards in the United States. American Express said MBNA will issue American Express-branded credit cards this year, allowing the company to reach a much larger potential customer base. New York-based American Express will also continue to issue its own cards. No financial terms were disclosed. The alliance was made possible by a 2001 ruling in an antitrust case brought by the Justice Department. A federal court in Manhattan ordered Visa and MasterCard to drop rules that prohibited their member banks from also issuing American Express and Discover cards. Legal appeals by Visa and MasterCard have been rejected. (AP)