7 companies bid to operate Winthrop Square garage

Seven parking management companies responded to the Boston Redevelopment Authority's request for bids to operate the aging city-owned Winthrop Square parking garage, site of a proposed 85-story skyscraper by businessman Steve Belkin, owner of Trans National Properties. A BRA spokeswoman said an operator would be selected by July 1 and would share revenue with the city under a one-year contract, with options to renew for three more years while Belkin develops plans. Mayor Thomas M. Menino has said he would use the revenue to support the Boston Housing Authority, which the city says is underfunded by the federal government. The Boston Municipal Research Bureau last week called for a public process to determine how proceeds from the increased parking fees and money from the sale of the garage will be spent. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Acadian Asset Management Inc. said it hired Jackson Loomis, previously a Fidelity Investments executive, to develop a quantitative investment strategy for a new fund aimed at institutional customers. Loomis previously comanaged an investment area at Fidelity's Pyramis unit for institutional customers. Acadian said it now has $75 billion in total assets under management, up from about $35 billion a year ago. (Ross Kerber)

A Raytheon Co. minimissile system at the core of a US weapons buying storm is "technically immature" and Army estimates for testing the vehicle protection system appear optimistic, congressional auditors said. In March 2006, Raytheon won a contract worth as much as $70 million to develop an "active protection system" to protect US combat vehicles from incoming fire. Raytheon anticipates the effectiveness of its APS solution will be fully demonstrated in a relevant environment by late summer or fall, said a Raytheon official, who asked not to be named. (Reuters)

Merck KGaA, the German drug maker that sells the Erbitux cancer treatment, bought a $29.8 million stake in closely held Archemix Corp., gaining technology that may help the company develop more tumor-fighting medicines. Under the agreement, Merck has an option to buy more Archemix stock in an initial share sale, the companies said. They will work on treatments based on Cambridge-based Archemix's aptamer technology that is designed to more precisely target diseases than existing chemical compounds. (Bloomberg)

Aspect Medical Systems Inc. will repurchase $31.8 million of its shares from Boston Scientific Corp. and the two companies will end their partnership to develop products to diagnose and treat neurological conditions. Aspect Medical will immediately acquire 2 million shares for $15.91 each, the companies said. Aspect Medical will take control of the commercial rights for the products the two companies developed and has the option to buy back as many as 4 million more shares for $15 apiece. The move ends a five-year development partnership started in May 2005. (Bloomberg)

Fidelity Investments, the world's biggest mutual fund company, sold almost all of its shares in Dow Jones & Co., the target of a $5 billion takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Fidelity's sale left it with about 117,000 shares, the Boston fund manager said in a regulatory filing. Fidelity was the third-largest holder of Dow Jones shares, with almost 4.7 million at the end of March, Bloomberg data show. Shares of Dow Jones, the New York owner of the Wall Street Journal, have jumped 66 percent since April 30, the day before News Corp.'s $60-a-share bid for the publisher was made public. (Bloomberg)

THE NATION

Internet search leader Google Inc. is trying to convince federal and state authorities that Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system is stifling competition as the high-tech heavyweights wrestle for the allegiance of personal computer users. In a 49-page document filed April 18 with the Justice Department and state attorneys general, Google alleged the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system impairs the performance of "desktop search" programs that find data stored on a computer's hard drive. (AP)