Company Updates

nternational Business Machines Corp. on Wednesday unveiled its fifth annual “Next Five in Five” — a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM predicts that technology will evolve in the following ways: You’ll beam up your friends in […]

A new report ranks the University of Massachusetts eighth in the country in generating income in 2009 from the licensing of faculty-produced discoveries and products, beating out both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The UMass system generated more than $70.5 million in “technology transfer income” in 2009 from 50 technology licenses and […]

A&P, the troubled grocer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday, weighed down by a crushing debt load and competition from low-price rivals. The Montvale, N.J.-based grocery-store chain—formally called the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.—listed total debts of more than $3.2 billion and assets of about $2.5 billion in a petition filed in bankruptcy […]

Seventy five years ago Robert Slate began selling paper and pencils at 8 Holyoke St. in Harvard Square as Bob Slate, Stationer. He persevered, survived the depression, nurtured his shop through the forties, thrived in the fifties, and unknown to himself created a legacy by orchestrating a seamless transition of responsibility to his sons Justin […]

Harvard University’s mysterious ruling body will face term limits for the first time and double in size following a lengthy study launched in the wake of a devastating 27 percent endowment drop and billions in investment losses last year. In a letter to the Harvard community, President Drew Faust said the Harvard Corp. will be […]

Jim May, standing at the left, has spent nearly 30 years building a company around the sweet leaves of the stevia plant grown in Paraguay. Now, with the U.S. market open, he’s looking to Europe. Image: Courtesy of SweetLeaf Jim May’s business, Wisdom Natural Brands, started international, with the odds against it and some of […]

Helix Therapeutics LLC, a New Haven, Conn.-based biopharmaceutical company, has landed $2.5 million in new funding from venture firm Canaan Partners and the quasi-public state funding entity Connecticut Innovations. According to Helix officials, the new funds will be used to move forward its proprietary targeted gene modification (TGM) technology platform, which the company says can […]