JPMorgan to add as many as 100 workers in Boston

April 10, 2007

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it plans to add up to 100 people to its mutual fund services division in Boston and move the unit to new space downtown. The financial services giant said it has hired more than 150 for the Boston group since last year, which now numbers 450 and provides custody, accounting, and investment operations for US mutual fund companies. The company also said it has leased new space at 1 Beacon St., owned by Beacon Capital Partners, and will move from 73 Tremont St., owned by Suffolk University. (Ross Kerber)

Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest US bank, said Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa will run its new private-wealth management unit after the company acquires US Trust Corp. from Charles Schwab Corp. this year. Sevilla-Sacasa recently replaced US Trust chief executive Peter Scaturro and will assume a role originally earmarked for him. Bank of America said last week he was stepping down and wouldn't join the company as planned. While it didn't give a reason for his departure, the Wall Street Journal reported Scaturro was likely to leave because of a "series of strategic and cultural disagreements." (Bloomberg)

BioMed Realty Trust Inc. said it formed a joint venture with Prudential Real Estate Investors to buy research facilities in the Boston area. The deal completes a $507 million acquisition of assets from affiliates of Lyme Timber Co. that includes about 600,000 square feet of life science space recently completed or under construction in Cambridge. It also includes land that could support about 266,000 square feet of life science laboratory and office space. (AP)

THE NATION

Advanced Micro Devices says it expects first-quarter revenue to fall short of Wall Street expectations. The semiconductor giant cites sharply weaker sales at its computing solutions unit. The company cited lower overall average selling prices and significantly lower unit sales, especially in the resale channel. Advanced Micro Devices plans to restructure its business model to increase efficiencies and lower costs. Plans include slashing capital expenditures in 2007 by about $500, as well as reducing discretionary expenses and limiting hiring to critical positions. (AP)

A California man who said the Vioxx painkiller had caused his heart attack three years ago dropped his lawsuit against Merck & Co., a day before the case was to go to trial. Lawyers for Lowell Berwick asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney to dismiss the case, said Wendy Tucker, a lawyer for Merck. "We believe that the evidence would have shown that Mr. Berwick suffered a heart attack not because of Vioxx but because of his previous history of cardiac disease," Tucker said. "The dismissal of the case underscores how successful our strategy is of fighting these cases one by one." (Bloomberg)

Walt Disney Co. will reprice $323 million in backdated stock options and spend as much as $33.5 million to compensate former Pixar employees for profits lost because of the adjustment. The options were granted to Pixar employees before the animation studio's $8.06 billion purchase last year, Disney said in a regulatory filing. The offer doesn't apply to directors or executives of Pixar. Raising the exercise price on the options will help employees avoid taxes, Disney said. The company cleared Steve Jobs of wrongdoing last month in backdating options at Pixar. (Bloomberg)

THE WORLD

The world's 16 largest natural gas exporting countries plan to establish a high-level group on gas pricing, the Russian energy minister said, though his Iranian and Qatari counterparts denied the producers aim to establish a cartel. Europe and the United States have expressed worries that the gas exporters seek to establish a cartel along the lines of OPEC that would control production levels and pricing. (AP)