Landmark to get $500M remake

A $500 million Landmark Center expansion and renovation would add three residential buildings with 550 units to the rapidly growing Fenway neighborhood and a new food hall anchored by the city's first Wegmans supermarket.

Developer Samuels & Associates yesterday released the in-depth look at the proposed project, which also would bring 110,000 square feet of additional retail space to the center.

"The expansion of Landmark assures the continued residential vibrancy of the neighborhood, supports its growth as a commercial center and introduces Wegmans as another amenity that is easily accessible to the entire city via the MBTA," Steve Samuels, chairman of Samuels & Associates, said in a statement. "This project allows us to continue to knit together the neighborhood."

A five-level parking garage would be razed to make way for the three residential buildings that would rise 10 to 12 stories above the two new floors of retail space and the 75,000-square-foot Wegmans. Parking for 1,500-plus cars would be underground.

"We want to create another actual front to the building," said Peter Sougarides, a Samuels principal and executive vice president of development, referring to the Fullerton Street back side of the center, where Wegmans would be located.

Samuels, whose completed and ongoing projects have helped reshape Fenway, bought the 950,000-square-foot Landmark Center for $530 million in 2011. Constructed in 1928 as a distribution center and warehouse for Sears, the brick and limestone Art Deco building was converted into retail and office space in the late 1990s by former owner the Abbey Group.

The food hall would run the entire length of the existing center, from Park Drive to Fullerton Street, providing access through the building that doesn't currently exist.

"The building is this great old concrete warehouse that has really great bones and a really great aesthetic, so we will have many different food vendors, retail shops and restaurants," Sougarides said. "It will really be a unique experience … that doesn't exist in the city today."

The project also would include a 25,800-square-foot public plaza fronting Brookline Avenue. Existing surface parking spots would be replaced with landscaped public open space and outdoor restaurant seating.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Three slots hopefuls pitch plans to gaming panel

The three companies competing for the state's sole slots parlor license each claimed yesterday that they had the best location, the widest support and the most to offer the host community and state.

"We're going to have a tough choice," Stephen Crosby, chairman of the state gaming commission, said after listening to pitches from the Cordish Companies, Penn National Gaming and Raynham Park, each of which have proposed 1,250 slots.

Joe Weinberg, president of the Cordish Companies, said his firm's proposed Leominster slots parlor would be the only gaming facility in north central Massachusetts. The project would create 600 permanent jobs and 600 construction jobs and would provide up to $1.5 million a year to help startup medical device firms through a partnership with the University of Massachusetts.

Penn National Gaming, meanwhile, has secured an option to buy Plainridge Racecourse for its slots parlor, which would preserve the harness track and the 124 jobs there and create 1,000 construction jobs and 500 permanent positions.

Raynham Park owner George Carney proposed a slots parlor at the former greyhound track in Raynham and has applied for limited harness racing at the old Brockton fairgrounds as a "safety net" for harness racing if he won the slots parlor license and Plainridge closed. The Raynham slots parlor could open the soonest of the three proposed, generating $400 million in economic output and $138 million in tax revenue for the state, said his partner, Tony Ricci, CEO of Greenwood Racing.

The commission expects to award the slots-only license by early January.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitter tunes in to TV partnerships ahead of IPO

NEW YORK — People don't just watch TV anymore; they talk about it on Twitter. From the comfort of couches, they share reactions to touchdowns and nail-biting season finales —and advertisers and networks are taking note.

Examples of Twitter's influence abound. The recent finale of "Breaking Bad" generated a record 1.24 million tweets. The conversation peaked at 22,373 tweets per minute according to analytics firm SocialGuide. People used the hashtag "GoodbyeBreakingBad" nearly 500,000 times. During this year's Super Bowl, sports fans generated 24 million tweets about the competition and nearly half of the game's nationally televised commercials contained hashtags that encouraged viewers to tweet.

Twitter, says Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at research firm eMarketer, "creates a community, a bond between people that doesn't really exist without Twitter."

As Twitter prepares for its initial public offering, the San Francisco-based company is also working hard to insert itself into the TV advertising economy. In recent months, the social networking company has forged partnerships with television content owners such as CBS, MTV and the NFL through a program it calls Amplify. The platform lets content owners beam real-time video clips to Twitter users who may have seen —or could be interested in— their TV programming. It also allows marketers to communicate with viewers who saw their TV ads, extending commercial pitches to consumers' smartphones and tablets.

TV tie-ins allow Twitter to diversify its revenue stream beyond the relatively small niche of digital advertising campaigns, a move that should appeal to potential investors. On Thursday, Twitter unsealed documents for a Wall Street debut that could take place before Thanksgiving. While the company did not reveal how much money it makes from its TV partnerships, it touted its own "strength as a second screen for television programming."

Twitter wrote in its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that "45% of television ads shown during the Super Bowl used a hashtag to invite viewers to engage in conversation about those television ads on Twitter."

Twitter's public nature makes it an especially attractive platform for tracking live-TV conversations. So much so that Nielsen recently began using Twitter's data to measure online social activity around TV programming, starting with this fall's TV season.

Nielsen will release its first "Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings" report on Monday. The study measures TV-related conversations on the social network. Nielsen found that in the second quarter of this year, 19 million people wrote 263 million tweets about live TV events, up 38 percent from a year earlier. Separately, Nielsen found that the "Breaking Bad" finale was by far the most tweeted-about program last week.

On Sunday, the NFL showed just how Twitter-enabled promotions work. Minutes after Cincinnati cornerback Adam Jones intercepted New England's Tom Brady, ending the quarterback's streak of 52 games with a touchdown pass, the NFL posted a video clip on Twitter. The clip shows Jones bobbling, and then snagging the ball before it hits the ground.

The 32-second clip was prefaced by an 8-second video ad for a Verizon Droid mobile phone. "Adam Jones ends the Pats undefeated season, Brady's TD streak AND a rainstorm. With 1 INT," the league tweeted.

By inserting itself into the online buzz, the NFL was able to remind people the game was going on live at its NFL Network channel. Meanwhile, it earned new revenue from Verizon, a longtime sponsor that wanted to showcase its NFL Mobile app.

The NFL has more than 5.1 million followers on Twitter. But its new partnership with Twitter means the tweet also went out to millions of other users who might be interested.

Hans Schroeder, the NFL's senior vice president of media strategy and development, says he expects promoted tweets will eventually reach tens of millions of fans, multiplying its reach.

"We think it'll drive tune-in to our games and drive more people into the experience through NFL Mobile," Schroeder says.

As part of the deal, Twitter shares some of the revenue from Verizon's advertising spend when the phone company pays for "promoted tweets." Previously, the money might have gone only to the league itself.

Twitter's projected 2013 revenue is about $582 million, according to research firm eMarketer. At the moment, the company generates tens of millions of dollars of revenue from all of its TV deals, including those with ESPN, Turner networks, CBS and others, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group.

That's not huge. However, says Wieser: "This year, it's about getting the foot in the door."

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Twitter gets just a small fraction of its revenue from the TV deals — around 1 percent. But by next year, the deals could amount to 5 percent, and 15 percent the year after, he says.

Twitter isn't alone in its quest to befriend TV content companies. Facebook, too, is recognizing the value of live TV chatter. Because of its sheer size — nearly 1.2 billion users versus Twitter's 218 million — Facebook has more conversations than any other social network. During the "Breaking Bad" finale, more than 3 million people generated 5.5 million "interactions," that is, status updates, comments or "likes."

For now, Facebook's TV partnerships are not intended to generate revenue, the company says. Rather, they are "focused on helping people discover great content," says Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice president of media partnerships.

Over the past few months, Facebook has rolled out more Twitter-like features as competition between the world's leading social networks heats up. There are now hashtags on Facebook, and the company is encouraging celebrities to use its site to interact with fans —just as many of them do on Twitter.

____

Ryan Nakashima contributed from Los Angeles.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Asian markets down on worry over US debt showdown

MUMBAI, India — Asian markets opened weak Monday after heated political rhetoric from the U.S. raised worries that the partial shutdown of the American government could bring the world's largest economy close to defaulting on its debt.

Japan's Nikkei index, the regional heavyweight, slumped by 1.2 percent to 13,861.05. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.7 percent to 22,968.36. Losses weren't as steep on South Korea's Kospi, which fell 0.1 percent to 1,995.10.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1 percent to 5,154.60, but trading volumes were light due public holidays in some parts of the country. Benchmarks in Indonesia, India and Taiwan also fell.

Investor anxiety has risen as the U.S. budget impasse between Republicans and the White House drags on.

On Sunday, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner ruled out a vote on a straightforward bill to raise the government's borrowing authority without concessions from President Barack Obama before an Oct. 17 deadline, moving closer to the possibility of default.

Wall Street stocks posted modest gains Friday, driven by optimism that Washington's bickering politicians would resolve their budget fight. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5 percent, to close at 15,072.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 0.7 percent, to 1,690.50. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.9 percent, to 3,807.75.

Benchmark oil for November delivery fell 53 cents to $103.31 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 53 cents to close at $103.84 on the Nymex on Friday

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3563 from $1.3559 late Friday. The dollar fell to 97.13 yen from 97.31 yen.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Co. calculates need for iPad textbooks

It took a single semester of teaching freshmen physics at Harvard three years ago to convince Zachary Wissner-Gross that lectures — and the leading online learning programs that emulate them — are often the least effective way to teach.

"They all have the same basic format," said Wissner-Gross, who earned his doctorate in physics at Harvard after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from MIT. "All of them are linear, and the students' experiences are passive, whereas the majority of my students had to have lengthy conversations and work through problems one-on-one with each other or with me during my office hours. That was when they got the most out of the material."

His friend and former MIT classmate, John Lee, a senior software engineer at Google, agreed. Together, they thought they could build a better online learning platform. So in March 2012, the two of them founded their own company, School Yourself, and the following month, they released "Trigonometry," their first interactive "textbook" for iPad.

Two more former MIT classmates, Vivek Venkatachalam and Kenny Peng, joined their team. And the four of them wrote two other textbooks, "Hands-on Pre-Calculus" and "Hands-on Calculus," using iBooks Author. As of last week, the three books had been downloaded a total of more than 13,000 times through iBooks.

Because not everyone owns an iPad, though, they wanted to reach a larger audience by releasing Web versions, ones that would be even more interractive. So last week, they launched the free test version of their online platform for early calculus at schoolyourself.org. The platform is designed to be highly personalized, allowing users to watch 30 seconds of a video and then choose to solve a problem, see more examples or ask for a hint — or go backward or forward to other sections, based on their ability.

"It's very much like choose your own adventure," said Wissner-Gross, 28. "We're putting a lot of decision-making into the hands of students. We're trying to make it as close to a one-on-one experience as possible."

The next subjects the platform will tackle — tentatively some time in 2014 — will be trigonometry, probability and statistics, and physics. But for the moment, Wissner-Gross and his teammates are focused on calculus — and gearing up for the Oct. 30 awards ceremony for this year's $1 million MassChallenge competition, where they'll face off against 127 other teams from around the world.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Sustaining local seafood

The New England Aquarium has been helping Gorton's put added weight behind its familiar "Trust the Gorton's Fishermen" advertising jingle.

This is the fifth year of a sustainable seafood partnership between the aquarium and the 164-year-old Gloucester seafood company that brought us the fish stick in 1952.

"We work with them to help advance the sustainability of the seafood that they buy and sell," said Tania Taranovski, manager of the aquarium's Sustainable Seafood Programs. "We really look at things throughout the supply chain …down to the producer level, whether it's the fishermen or fish farmers."

The aquarium works with the seafood industry to promote responsible fisheries management, providing scientific advice on ocean-friendly aquaculture and wild-caught fishery operations. Clients include Ahold USA, parent company of the Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., and Darden Restaurants, whose eateries include Red Lobster and Olive Garden.

"Having the expertise of the New England Aquarium scientists behind us is invaluable," said Lisa Webb, Gorton's supply chain vice president. "The team advises us on how to ensure greater environmental accountability with our fish sources."

Taranovski started by assessing the environmental statuses of each species used in Gorton's products, including habitat impacts, fishing practices and overall health. The aquarium and company work toward the "common vision" of the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions. Formed in 2008 by 16 U.S. and Canadian conservation groups, it outlines six steps as a framework for businesses that want to work on seafood sustainability.

"It includes things like education of staff, suppliers, consumers … improving the traceability of the supply, making procurement changes in favor of sustainability," Taranovski said.

One joint project worked to improve the feed source for tilapia raised on Asian fish farms that Gorton's uses. Another involved pollock, an important species for Gorton's that's used for products such as fish sticks and breaded fish fillets. Gorton's joined an alliance to improve the Russian fishery so it could earn Marine Stewardship Council certification, which came last month.

Working with Gorton's has been rewarding, according to Taranovski. "Sure, there are things about working with business that if you're working solely on an issue from a (non-government organization's) perspective you might take a different tack," she said. "But ... they're providing livelihoods. They have contracts ... shareholder interests and pressures that a company has that you have to take into account. It requires a different approach but … working together, we feel we can make more change than working independently."

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Confusion over Twitter amplifies Tweeter stock

A rush to get on the Twitter IPO bandwagon could be responsible for yesterday's massive stock price jump for Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, or could have just been a savvy investment move.

Tweeter, the Canton-based electronics retailer that filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and trades under the symbol TWTRQ, saw its stock shoot up by 
1,400 percent at one point yesterday, possibly due to confusion from investors looking to get a jump on shares of Twitter, which shared details of its highly anticipated IPO on Thursday, as well as its proposed stock symbol, TWTR.

Shares of Tweeter, which started the day at 1 cent each, hit 15 cents a share, but trading was eventually halted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, citing a misunderstanding related to the "possible initial public offering of an unrelated security."

"Somebody probably got confused ahead of the Twitter IPO and either misspelled the name of the company or mistyped the ticker by adding a Q at the end," Larry Peruzzi, senior equity trader at Cabrerra Capital Markets in Boston told Bloomberg.

More than 14.3 million shares of Tweeter changed hands yesterday, the most since 2007.

Still, Max Wolff, senior analyst and chief economist for ZT Wealth, said the momentum could have started with one savvy investor.

"There might be people who aren't necessarily idiots who decided they could implement a very cheap and easy strategy" by counting on more confusion when real Twitter shares begin to sell, he said. Those savvy investors would then make a tidy profit if confusion leads to higher — if mistaken— demand for Tweeter. "This is actually not a bad strategy," he said.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Ticker

Markets gain as shutdown continues

Stocks moved higher on Wall Street yesterday, but investors remained focused on Washington, where a partial government shutdown and a fast approaching deadline on the nation's borrowing limit have weighed on markets all week.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 76.10 points, or 0.5 percent, to 15,072.58 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 11.84 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,690.50. The Nasdaq composite index rose 33.41, or 0.9 percent, to 3,807.75.

Mass. Gaming Commission gets 
final slots applications

The state Gaming Commission received final slots applications yesterday from Cordish Cos., which has proposed a slots parlor in Leominster; Penn National Gaming, which hopes to add slot machines at the Plainridge harness racetrack in Plainville; and Raynham Park.

The five-member commission is scheduled to hear 90-minute presentations from each of the companies Monday. They are competing for the state's sole slots parlor license. All three passed an extensive background check conducted by the commission, and reached agreements with officials in their host communities that were later approved by voters.

The commission hopes to award the slots-only license in late December or early January.

NSA trying to crack Web privacy tool

The National Security Agency has been trying to crack the online anonymity provided by Tor, a U.S.-funded Internet tool designed to keep Internet activity private and said to be widely used by dissidents in oppressive countries, as well as by terrorists, according to the latest secret intelligence documents drawn from the cache leaked by Edward Snowden and published by the UK's Guardian newspaper.

The NSA hasn't been able to crack Tor outright, but through various means it's been able to "de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users," says an internal NSA document quoted by the Guardian.

THE SHUFFLE

• Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New England announced that Wendy Wagenbach, left, has been appointed field training manager. In this position, Wagenbach will have oversight of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's education and career development department.
• BlumShapiro, a regional accounting, tax and business consulting firm, announced the addition of Kimberley Train as a partner in the firm's litigation services and business valuation group. Train will operate out of BlumShapiro's Boston and Quincy offices.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

The Ticker

Hacking group members indicted

A federal grand jury yesterday indicted 13 members of the Internet hacking group Anonymous for allegedly carrying out cyber-attacks worldwide, including against targets that refused to process payments for WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website founded by Julian Assange.

The U.S.-based members of Anonymous are accused of zeroing in on the computers of governments, trade associations, law firms, financial institutions and other institutions that oppose the philosophy of Anonymous to make all information free for everyone, regardless of copyright laws or national security considerations.

Twitter's IPO reveals it's losing money

Twitter revealed its confidential IPO filing yesterday, clearing the way for one of largest and most hyped IPOs since Facebook.

The filing reveals that the company is still growing, but is losing money. Twitter's revenue was $253.6 million in the first half of this year, up from $122.4 million in the year-ago period. However, the company had a net loss of $69.3 million in the first half, compared to a net loss of $49.1 million in the year-ago period.

Instagram to start sponsored ads

Instagram has decided to flick on its revenue engine, announcing plans to bring sponsored images and videos into the mix.

Facebook's popular app was widely expected to make the move to launch advertisements. The company plans to launch these sponsored images and videos in the coming months.

Data of 3 million Adobe Systems customers accessed by hackers

Adobe Systems said yesterday that hackers had accessed personal data for nearly 3 million of its customers.

Brad Arkin, Adobe's chief security officer, wrote in a blog post that the hackers had removed data including encrypted credit- and debit-card numbers, but that the company does not believe any decrypted numbers were taken.

The Shuffle

 Kristen Zemeitus, left, has joined the 451 Marketing consumer public relations team as account executive. Zemeitus brings seven years of public relations experience in the food, pet, fashion apparel, footwear and sporting equipment industries.

 J. Barrett & Company announced that Realtor Ann-Marie Ciaraldi has joined the agency in its Beverly Farms office. Ciaraldi's business background includes owning her own marketing company for three years.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More

Market Basket workers to protest

Market Basket employees will converge at the Waltham site of a stalled store Sunday for a protest against the grocery chain's board.

"The point of the rally is to bring attention to the board and the damage they're causing," said organizer Cindy Whelan, store manager at the Market Basket in Epping, N.H.

A June election left majority power with "A" shareholders led by Arthur S. Demoulas, a cousin of CEO Arthur T. Demoulas, whom they're trying to oust. The board's failure to make payments has put on hold stores in Waltham, Revere and Plymouth, said Scott Lang, the developer's attorney.

A board spokeswoman did not respond to Herald inquiries.

12.32 | 0 komentar | Read More