Biogen Idec to launch buyback of $3b in stock

Cambridge Drug maker Biogen Idec Inc. said it would start buying $3 billion worth of its own shares, potentially cutting the number of outstanding shares by one-sixth. Chief executive James Mullen said strong cash flows from sales of Avonex, for multiple sclerosis, and Rituxan, for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, allowed the company to return money to shareholders in a tender offer starting today and running to June 26, Biogen will buy back up to 57 million shares at a price between $47 and $53. (AP)

Boston Properties Inc. has sold an office park in Quincy for $37 million, a broker involved in the transaction said. The broker in the transaction is Meredith & Grew, a Boston commercial real estate company that said it represented Boston Properties, a Boston real estate investment trust whose properties include the Prudential Center in Boston. The property in the Quincy transaction is Newport Office Park, a six-story building at 108 Myrtle St., a location near the North Quincy MBTA stop, Meredith & Grew said. Meredith & Grew described the buyer as a German investor client of Real Estate Capital Partners, a New York real estate investor adviser. (Chris Reidy)

THE NATION

ESpeed Inc., an electronic trading house, said it will merge with broker BGC Partners. ESpeed and BGC are both part of Cantor Fitzgerald LP. Under the agreement, eSpeed will issue 133.9 million shares of its common stock and rights to acquire its shares, which are being valued at $9.75 apiece, representing a 6 percent premium to its closing stock price of $9.19 yesterday. BGC will withdraw its proposed $460 million initial public offering because of the merger. The new combined company will be named BGC Partners and will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol BGCP. (Dow Jones)

Avaya Inc. shares rose to their highest in more than two years after the Wall Street Journal said the world's largest maker of corporate telephone equipment is in talks with Silver Lake Partners about a leveraged buyout. The report heightened speculation the Basking Ridge, N.J., company may be close to a deal. With a market value of more than $7 billion, a purchase of Avaya could be the largest leveraged buyout of a computer networking company. Avaya may be an attractive target because of its cash flow and improving profit margins, analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co., JMP Securities and Kaufman Brothers said. (Bloomberg)

Ford Motor Co. said it was not in discussions aimed at a sale of its Swedish unit Volvo, denying reports it was mulling an immediate disposition of a unit seen as its most valuable luxury brand. Swedish newspaper Goteborgs Posten said Ford was eyeing a sale of its Volvo brand and named German carmaker BMW as a possible buyer. That followed a report Friday in the Financial Times saying that BMW had been in informal talks to buy Volvo from the struggling number two US automaker. "Ford Motor Company is not in discussions with BMW or any other company regarding an interest in the Volvo Car Corporation," Ford said. (Reuters)

MedImmune Inc., the Gaithersburg, Md., drug maker being bought by AstraZeneca PLC for $15.2 billion, was cited by US regulators for "significant deviations from good manufacturing practice" at a United Kingdom plant. MedImmune failed to take adequate steps to prevent contamination of flu vaccine strains being made in Liverpool, the Food and Drug Administration said in a warning letter posted on the agency's website. The company said May 25 that the FDA won't approve use of its FluMist vaccine for children ages 1 to 5 until the violations are corrected. MedImmune is working with the FDA to resolve its concerns as quickly as possible, spokeswoman Karen Lancaster said. (Bloomberg)

Facing a grim housing market, Pulte Homes Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., said it is cutting about 16 percent of its workforce, or about 2,000 jobs, as part of a restructuring. Pulte, one of the nation's leading home builders, said the restructuring will save an estimated $200 million a year before taxes. Pulte said it expects to take pretax charges of $40 million to $50 million for the restructuring.