Cape group asks insurance commissioner to take action

A Cape Cod citizens group is urging Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes to disavow her predecessor's approval last year of hefty increases in the home insurance rates of Massachusetts Fair Plan, the state's insurer of last resort. Attorney General Martha Coakley is arguing in a lawsuit that the increases approved by then-commissioner Julianne M. Bowler, including a 25 percent increase on the Cape, were not legally justified. Paula Aschettino, head of Citizens for Homeowners Insurance Reform in Eastham, urged Burnes to file a brief in support of Coakley and show her opposition to what she called illegal rate increases. A spokeswoman for the Division of Insurance declined to comment. (Bruce Mohl)

Netezza Corp., whose products enable companies to store and analyze large amounts of data, priced its initial public offering at $12, exceeding the expected range. The Framingham company had expected to price the IPO between $9 and $11. Netezza is offering 9 million shares. The underwriters have been given the option to buy up to 1.4 million additional shares to cover any overallotments. (AP)

Dell Inc., the second-largest personal computer maker, agreed to buy closely held SilverBack Technologies Inc. of Billerica to add software for maintaining computers. Terms were not disclosed. SilverBack makes software that can distribute programs to many computers at the same time. (Bloomberg)

THE NATION

Microsoft Corp. is facing deeper scrutiny from European regulators on whether it is abusing its dominance in word processing and spreadsheets, three people with direct knowledge of the case said. The European Commission in Brussels has sent a second questionnaire to rivals of Microsoft, asking them for additional details on how the company might crimp competition by withholding technical data on Word and Excel, said the people, who declined to be identified because the letters aren't public. (Bloomberg)

Worldwide shipments of personal computers rose strongly in the second quarter due to growing demand in Asia and unexpected strength in the United States, two research companies reported. IDC estimated that 58.8 million PCs were shipped in the April-to-June period, up 12.5 percent from the same quarter last year. Gartner Inc., which uses a somewhat different methodology, counted 61.1 million units, for a growth rate of 11.7 percent. Eastern Asia, excluding Japan, was the strongest market, with sales up more than 20 percent. In laptops, growth was about 50 percent, according to IDC. In the United States, second-quarter shipments rose 7.2 percent according to IDC and 5.9 percent according to Gartner, helped by aggressive competition and demand for laptops. Desktop shipments continued to decline. (AP)

Merck & Co. investors convinced an appeals court to revive a suit alleging the third-largest US drug maker's board should be held responsible for the company's failure to disclose the health risks of its Vioxx painkiller. The 3d US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia overturned a judge's decision to throw out the derivative suit, which seeks to recoup damages from directors on behalf of the company over Vioxx's May 2004 withdrawal from the market. The lower-court judge erred by barring investors from adding new information to their complaint about directors' alleged failures to ensure the drug's risks were disclosed properly, the appellate court said. (Bloomberg)

Gilead Sciences Inc. patents covering its top-selling product Viread, a drug used to treat HIV and AIDS, will be reconsidered by the Patent and Trademark Office. Public Patent Foundation, a consumer group, asked the agency to take a second look at four patents on the drug, whose chemical name is tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. The agency will decide whether the patents cover a new innovation in light of earlier inventions and know-how, called "prior art." A Gilead spokeswoman called the review a technical matter. (Bloomberg)