Online event space locator expands to Boston

Eventup, an online resource that helps event planners and consumers find and book unique venues, said today it is launching its sixth location in Boston.

Based in Santa Monica, Calif., the company has grown to include Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago since its February launch.

The company said it offers a selection of more than 5,000 hard-to-find venues and is a timesaving solution that helps event planners and consumers research, price, confirm availability and book exclusive event spaces that fit their needs.

Services are free for customers, with property owners paying a 15 percent booking fee. Venue rates range from $500 to $100,000, Eventup said.

Eventup venues now available in Boston include the Waterworks Museum and the Royale Nightclub.

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Devens-based AMSC cuts quarter of work force

AMSC, an energy technology company based in Devens, said today it has slashed its work force by about 25 percent and is also consolidating office space to lower operating costs.

The company, citing "challenging conditions" in the wind power market, said it now has about 340 employees worldwide after laying off more than 100 workers.

"Financing and cash flow among wind farm developers and wind turbine manufacturers have been constrained, which has impacted growth plans for some of our ... partners," AMSC chief Daniel McGahn said in a statement. "Given this environment, we made the difficult but prudent decision to reduce our work force in order to weather the industry downturn and minimize our cash usage."

The company expects the moves to reduce annual expenses by nearly $10 million, while lowering its annualized operating expenses to less than $58 million, once the savings are fully realized in the fiscal quarter ending June 30.

The company, which remains in court battles with China's largest wind turbine manufacturer and former customer Sinovel Wind Group Co., said its expects to pay nearly $2 million in cash severance costs in the fourth quarter of this year.

AMSC also revised its financial forecast for the third quarter. Revenues would most likely exceed $20 million while the company's net loss would be less than $24 million, officials said.

AMSC stock, which closed yesterday at $2.77 a share, fell nearly 12 percent to a low of $2.44 today.

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Siemens to spin off majority in Osram unit

BERLIN — Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG has announced plans to shed a majority stake in its Osram unit, which makes light bulbs, in a spinoff to shareholders.

Siemens said today that its supervisory board will propose spinning off 80.5 percent of Osram, followed by a public listing of the division. It said existing Siemens shareholders will get one Osram share for every 10 Siemens shares they hold.

The company didn't specify when it hopes to conduct the spinoff. The plan will need approval by its annual shareholder meeting in January.

It said it will retain 17 percent of Osram, and the Siemens Pension Trust will hold 2.5 percent.

Siemens said in July that, because of the difficult market environment, it had scrapped previous plans for an outright stock market listing.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Nokia sues RIM for breach of contract

HELSINKI — Nokia Corp. is suing Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry, for breach of contract in Britain, the United States and Canada over cellular patents the two companies agreed on nine years ago.

The struggling cellphone and RIM agreed in 2003 on a "cross-license for standards-essential cellular patents." Since then, RIM has sought to amend the deal, claiming the license should also have covered patents for non-essential parts. A Swedish tribunal earlier this month ruled against RIM's claims.

Nokia says Wednesday that it is now filing a lawsuit to enforce the tribunal's latest decision against RIM's claims. According to that decision, RIM is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products, used widely in smartphones, without first agreeing royalties with Nokia, which is based in Finland.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Costco plans special cash dividend of $7 per share

Costco plans special cash dividend of $7 per share

The Associated Press

Costco plans a special dividend of $7 per share next month in addition to the regular quarterly dividend the wholesale club operator pays shareholders.

The Issaquah, Wash., company said Wednesday that the special dividend will be payable Dec. 18 to shareholders of record Dec. 10. Costco Wholesale Corp.'s regular quarterly dividend of 27.5 cents per share will be paid Nov. 30 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 16.

Costco also said Wednesday that its November revenue climbed nearly 9 percent to $8.15 billion. Revenue from stores open at least a year rose 6 percent. The increase was 5 percent excluding gains from gasoline price inflation and stronger foreign currencies.

Revenue from stores open at least a year is a key gauge of a retailer's health because it excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.

Costco's shares rose $4.29, or 4.5 percent, to $100.80 in morning trading Wednesday. Its shares peaked for the past year at $104.43 in October. They traded as low as $78.81 in early January.

Many companies are making special end-of-year dividend payments or moving up their quarterly payouts because investors may have to pay higher taxes on dividend income starting in January.

Investors have paid a maximum 15 percent on dividends since 2003. But that historically low rate will expire in January unless Congress and President Barack Obama reach a compromise on taxes and government spending.

As it stands, dividends will be taxed as ordinary income in 2013, the same as wages, so rates will go up depending on which income bracket a taxpayer is in. For the highest earners, the dividend rate would jump to 43.4 percent.

Even if a compromise is reached, there's no guarantee that the tax rate for dividends will remain at its current level.

Fitch Ratings said Wednesday it was lowering Costco's issuer default rating one notch to "A+" from "AA-" because the company plans to take on more debt to pay the special dividend. Analyst Philip M. Zahn said "A+" is still considered an above-average, investment-grade rating.

Costco runs 618 warehouses in several countries, including 447 in the United States and Puerto Rico.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Egypt stocks drops again after president's decree

CAIRO — Egypt's benchmark stock index has plunged again in the second major drop since Islamist president Mohammed Morsi issued decrees to assume far-ranging powers.

Wednesday's drop of 4.6 percentage points was the latest sign of the impact of President Mohammed Morsi's decrees on Egypt's already battered economy. His move set off a wave of unrest, including a 200,000-strong demonstration in Cairo.

The latest drop on the Egyptian Exchange's EGX30 came after market shares plunged by close to 10 percent on Sunday. That was the biggest loss since the period following the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 after a popular uprising.

Sunday's loss in share value was estimated at close to $5 billion.

A year and a half of turmoil has decimated tourism and foreign investment in Egypt.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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FDA to review Aveo kidney cancer drug

Aveo Oncology of Cambridge and its Japanese partner Astellas Pharma said today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has agreed to review its drug candidate for treating patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

The drug, called tivozanib, is an investigational medicine and is not currently approved in any country, the companies said. The FDA expects to complete its review by July 28.

If approved, the drug would be branded as Tivopath. The FDA's acceptance of the drug will also trigger a $15 million milestone payment to Aveo under its development and commercialization agreement with Astellas, which is based in Tokyo.

The companies said renal cell carcinoma accounts for more than 90 percent of all kidney cancers with more than 100,000 people dying from the disease each year.

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Mass. ranks second in home price survey

Massachusetts is the nation's second most expensive state to buy a house in, according to a report released today by Coldwell Banker Real Estate.

The average listing price for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the Bay State is $489,063. The nation's most expensive housing market is Hawaii, where a four-bedroom, two-bath home has an average listing price of $742,551.

Following Massachusetts are California ($431,625), New Jersey ($421,108), Connecticut ($411,884), Colorado ($387,309), New York ($359,682), Minnesota ($357,461), Maryland ($354,465) and Washington ($342,716).

Nebraska is the most affordable state to live in, according to the report. The average listing price for a four-bedroom, two-bath home in the Cornhusker State is $145,360.

The report analyzed more than 72,000 home listings in more than 2,500 U.S. markets, comparing the listing prices of similar homes in markets across the country from January to June of this year.

The five most expensive housing markets are all in California, with four in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the report. Los Altos, Calif. Tops the list at $1,706,688, followed by Newport Beach ($1,658,000), Saratoga ($1,582,434), Menlo Park ($1,506,909) and Palo Alto ($1,495,364).

The only Massachusetts region to make the most expensive housing markets list is Weston at number 14, where the average listing price for a four-bedroom, two-bath home is more than $1.1 million. The most affordable housing market is Redford, Mich. at $60,490 a home.

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Milton hospital president to step down

Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton president Joseph Morrissey is stepping down, effective Dec. 31, the hospital's board of directors said today.

Morrissey will be succeeded on an interim basis by Doris Sinkevich, who currently serves as the hospital's chief operating officer and chief nursing officer.

Morrissey served as Milton Hospital's vice president of financial services from 1988 until 2003, when he was named president. A 20-year employee of the hospital, Morrissey was responsible for guiding the hospital through a successful affiliation with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which was formalized in January of this year, officials said.

"Mr. Morrissey has been an excellent steward of BID-Milton during his tenure as president, skillfully guiding us through our affiliation in a way that allowed us to continue to keep our autonomy and focus on providing excellent care in our community," said Michael Brady, chairman of BID-Milton's board of directors. "With this transition complete, BID-Milton has entered a new phase of operations, which we both agree requires a different kind of leadership."

The board of directors has appointed a search committee and will immediately embark on a national search for a new CEO, officials said.

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Watertown biotech firm teams with Sanofi

Selecta Biosciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Watertown, said today it has entered into a collaboration with Sanofi to develop three immunotherapy candidates for food allergies.

Under terms of the agreement, Selecta is eligible to receive several pre-clinical, regulatory and sales milestones totaling $300 million per allergen indication for up to three treatment candidates.

Selecta is also entitled to up to double-digit tiered royalties as percentage of net sales for each commercialized product.

Sanofi will also have access to Selecta's proprietary "Synthetic Vaccine Particle" platform.

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