Today in Globe Business

Shakeup in Bay State biotech: Icahn eyes Genzyme

Billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn has notified Genzyme Corp. that he will nominate four candidates - including himself - for seats on its board, placing the Cambridge biotechnology company in the crosshairs of one of the nation’s most feared corporate raiders.

The move, disclosed by the company yesterday, increases the pressure on Genzyme as it labors to regain its footing after a series of costly setbacks last year. They included the discovery of a virus that forced a temporary shutdown of the Allston Landing plant where it makes two of its best-selling drugs for rare genetic disorders.

Icahn won two seats on the board of Genzyme’s Kendall Square neighbor Biogen Idec Inc. last June, and pushed successfully for the resignation of its chief executive, James C. Mullen. Icahn has been slowly accumulating shares of Genzyme as they fell more than 20 percent over the past year. He boosted his stake in Genzyme to 4.8 million shares, just under 2 percent of the company, during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to a recent regulatory filing.

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BOSTON CAPITAL: Irresistible merges

Will Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. end up spending billions to buy Millipore Corp., another Massachusetts technology company headquartered just 13 miles away?

I bet it will, but that isn’t any kind of wild gamble. Business conditions are ideal for corporate mergers of all sizes, and the momentum for deals appears to be gaining steam. Favorable stock prices, low interest rates, an improving economy, and companies brimming with cash are all part of an equation that adds up to more mergers on the horizon.

Unlike in the corporate buying binge of 2006 and 2007, private equity investors figure in only a minority of acquisitions today. Current conditions favor operating companies buying other businesses that provide strategic opportunities to expand business, cut costs, or both.

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Thermo Fisher could be on the verge of a big deal

Shares of Millipore Corp. shot up 22.4 percent yesterday following reports that the Billerica maker of life s

ciences tools is weighing a $6 billion takeover offer from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Thermo Fisher, the laboratory science conglomerate based in Waltham, has been on an acquisition tear, snapping up half a dozen companies over the past 18 months, including Ahura Scientific, a Wilmington maker of tools for health and public safety uses.

Most of those have been small purchases, however, financed with Thermo Fisher’s cash. Industry analysts have been speculating for months that a much larger debt-financed acquisition may be coming this year, with Millipore and analytical technologies giant Waters Corp. of Milford among those named as potential Thermo Fisher targets.

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Video rental stores fading to black

On a recent weekday, Ken Moore browsed the new release wall at Hollywood Video but he couldn’t avoid the “Store Closing’’ banners that draped the inside and outside of the Quincy store.

“I’m like a dinosaur,’’ said the father of two from Milton. “People tell me ‘You’re still going to the video store?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah.’ ’’

Moore is a part of a growing minority of movie renters who shun the convenience of instantly uploading moves online or grabbing a DVD at supermarket kiosks in favor of roaming the aisles of the big-box video rental stores such as Blockbuster or Hollywood Video. At a time when mainstream video store chains are being challenged like never before by the growth of on-demand cable movie rentals and Internet-based mail delivery outlets, these cinephiles are like nomads, driving farther and farther to find another video store when their neighborhood shop closes.

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