Today in Globe Business

EMC wins bid for Data Domain

EMC Corp. has won the high-stakes bidding war for Data Domain Inc., with a rival data storage company, NetApp Inc., dropping out of the fight - two days after EMC boosted its bid to $2.1 billion.

“This is a compelling acquisition from both a strategic and financial standpoint,’’ Hopkinton-based EMC’s chief executive, Joe Tucci, said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to bringing Data Domain together with EMC to form a powerful force in next-generation, disk-based backup and archive.’’

In a news release, NetApp’s chief executive, Dan Warmenhoven, said the latest EMC bid pushed Data Domain out of his company’s price range.

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Smooth turnover vowed at insurer

Board members at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care had long known their chief executive, Charles D. Baker, was weighing a run for governor, so they had prepared a transition plan in the event of his departure. Yesterday, they put it into action, naming chief operating officer Bruce Bullen as interim chief executive of the state’s second-largest health insurer.

The move will take effect at the end of next week, when Baker, 52, leaves the company to begin putting together his campaign.

Bullen, 62, was recruited to join Harvard Pilgrim in 1999, two months after Baker arrived. He has been part of the management team that led the Wellesley-based insurer into and out of state receivership and through a turnaround that has made it profitable in the midst of an economic downturn. Harvard Pilgrim was recently cited by the J.D. Power and Associates research firm as having the highest member satisfaction of any commercial health plan in New England.

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Frank proposes home loan plan for jobless

Congressman Barney Frank wants to prevent unemployed homeowners from losing their houses by giving them government money to pay their mortgages.

The Newton Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will hold a hearing in Washington today on his proposal to spend $2 billion to prevent foreclosures on borrowers who don’t qualify for other mortgage aid programs because they are unemployed. The funds would come in the form of loans, and borrowers would have to pledge their homes as security.

The catalyst for the proposal is a growing jobless rate that reached a 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June, Frank said.

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Stricter rules for mortgage brokers keep hundreds out

In its first year of licensing mortgage professionals, Massachusetts disqualified hundreds of applicants from working in the industry because they had criminal records, shoddy finances, or other questionable history.

Nearly one-fourth of the 7,747 applicants for a mortgage origination license in the state’s most recent fiscal year were rejected or withdrawn, after Massachusetts adopted regulations that prohibit felons, those convicted of misdemeanors related to fraud, or people with a record of financial mismanagement from handling mortgages.

The vast majority of the rejected applicants had already been working as mortgage brokers or loan officers in Massachusetts prior to the new licensing requirements. Some had been previously convicted of bank, insurance, or securities fraud, while others had poor credit histories.

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TECH LAB: Freedom of an unlocked phone may not be worth it

How would you like a free cellphone? It will cost you only $600.

Granted, that is a loose definition of the word. “Free’’ usually means keeping our wallets folded. But for some, it means the freedom to use a cellphone with the carrier of their choice.

Most of us get deeply discounted phones in exchange for being locked into a two-year contract with Verizon, Sprint, or another carrier. But some people would rather pay full price for an unlocked handset - one that’s open to being used with different carriers - then hook up with whatever carrier offers the best service or price. When a different carrier offers a better deal, they can immediately switch. Ah, now that’s being free.

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