TECHNOLOGY

A new GM for Uber’s Boston office

Uber’s Boston office has named Harvard Business School graduate Chris Taylor, who was previously general manager of the ride-hailing service’s Chicago office, its new GM. A 2012 HBS alum who has also worked at Boston Consulting Group, Taylor will report to Uber’s previous Boston GM, Meghan Joyce, who now oversees East Coast operations. Taylor said among his goals is expanding UberPool, which was launched in August and lets riders share their trips with other riders. Boston was one of five cities in which the service debuted, and it is now offered in 20 cities worldwide. — SACHA PFEIFFER

TECHNOLOGY

Ride-hailing firms react to driver demands

Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc. has agreed to pay $12.25 million and change how it treats its California drivers to settle claims of unfair treatment, while rival Uber heads toward trial to fight similar demands by its drivers. The proposed settlement would allow Lyft to deactivate drivers only for specified reasons rather than terminating them at will, according to a court filing Tuesday. Lawyers for the drivers asked a federal judge in San Francisco to approve the accord. The agreement provides for a $12.25 million settlement fund. Drivers in California would receive a portion of the settlement based on the number of hours they have worked for Lyft. Uber is scheduled to face its drivers at a trial in June over claims they should be treated as employees rather than contractors. — BLOOMBERG

AVIATION

JetBlue now Celtics’ official airline

JetBlue is already the biggest airline at Logan Airport. Now, the New York-based carrier can claim that it’s the dominant airline at sporting events for all four of Boston’s major pro sports teams. JetBlue just signed a five-year partnership with the Boston Celtics, making it the basketball team’s “official airline.’’ The deal puts JetBlue’s name courtside during Celtics games and on Celtics.com. This will be the first time that the Celtics will have a sponsor on the top of its backboard during home games at TD Garden, according to a Celtics spokesman. The two partners will also develop a number of community initiatives aimed at helping local youth and the environment. JetBlue already has signed sponsorship agreements with the Red Sox, the New England Patriots, and the Boston Bruins. The Celtics’ last airline sponsor was Southwest, and that deal ended in June 2011, the Celtics spokesman said. — JON CHESTO

BIOTECH

Zieziula to run EMD Serono

That sure didn’t take long. Merck KGaA has promoted Gary Zieziula to (left) run EMD Serono, the German company’s North American biotech business, just one month after the previous president was recruited away by another drug company. Rockland-based EMD Serono’s top job opened up last month when Ariad Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge hired Paris Panayiotopoulos, EMD Serono’s previous president, to be Ariad’s new chief executive as of Jan. 1. That’s when Ariad’s founder, Harvey Berger, stepped down after facing pressure earlier in the year from activist investors who wanted new leadership at the Cambridge firm. Zieziula, 61, then EMD Serono’s chief commercial officer, was put in charge on an interim basis immediately. On Wednesday, the company confirmed that the “interim’’ would be dropped from Zieziula’s job description. He joined the company in 2014, and has more than 30 years of experience in the drug industry. EMD Serono’s treatments include fertility and multiple sclerosis drugs, and it has been expanding its efforts in oncology in recent years. EMD Serono has roughly 1,200 employees in the United States and Canada, most of them in Massachusetts. — JON CHESTO

REAL ESTATE

BNY Mellon staying at One Boston Place

Investment firm BNY Mellon will stay put in its downtown office tower. The company is extending its lease at One Boston Place — the 41-story black rectangular tower at the corner of Washington and State streets — for another 15 years, a pair of real estate brokerage firms announced Wednesday. At 250,000 square feet, the new lease is one of the biggest of the last year, rivaling Putnam Investments’ move to 100 Federal, which was signed earlier this month. And it takes another major tenant off the board for developers of several new downtown office towers. For BNY though, it means stability. The company has been the major tenant in One Boston Place since 1980, though it undertook a two-year search for other space. As part of lease negotiations, building owners TIAA-CREF and Ivanhoe Cambridge agreed to revamp amenities, including an outdoor terrace on the second floor, a conference center, and a fitness center. — TIM LOGAN

BIOTECH

Despite loss, Vertex profit beats expectations

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday reported a loss of $75.5 million in its fourth quarter, but its adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations on strong sales of its new cystic fibrosis drug. On a per-share basis, the Boston-based company said it had a loss of 31 cents. Earnings, adjusted for nonrecurring costs and stock-option expense, came to 17 cents per share. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 14 cents per share. The drug maker posted revenue of $417.9 million in the period, topping the average Street estimate of $406 million, according to FactSet. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

TECHNOLOGY

Facebook revenue soars

After taking two months off to spend time with his newborn daughter, Mark Zuckerberg is back to business. And business is good. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg’s company, Facebook, reported another quarter of soaring revenue. Sales rose 52 percent from a year earlier to $5.84 billion on the strength of its mobile advertising business and an increase in daily users. Profit rose to $1.56 billion, more than doubling from a year earlier. The numbers far surpassed Wall Street’s expectations of $1.2 billion in profit on $5.37 billion in revenue. Investors welcomed the blockbuster results. Facebook’s shares, which closed at $94.45 in regular trading, jumped in after-hours trading. — NEW YORK TIMES

BIOTECH

Biogen tops expectations

Biogen reported declining fourth-quarter profits but it easily topped most expectations as sales of its treatment for multiple sclerosis took off. Sales of Tecfidera jumped 8.4 percent to $993 million as sales of its other treatments for multiple sclerosis dipped. The biotechnology company’s profit fell 6 percent to $831.6 million, or $3.77 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $4.50 per share, which far exceeded the per-share earnings of $4.07 that Wall Street was looking for, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research.Revenue rose 7.5 percent to $2.84 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Twenty-one analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.71 billion. The Cambridge-based company said that revenue from its other multiple sclerosis drugs, Avonex and Plegridy, fell 4.8 percent to $740 million. Sales of the multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri fell slightly to $481 million. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

BIOTECH

Life Sciences Center keeps funding

Funding for the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, the agency created by former governor Deval Patrick to build the state’s biotech and medical technology industries, would be continued in the fiscal 2017 budget proposed Wednesday by Governor Charlie Baker. The spending plan allocates $10 million for the operation of the Waltham-based life sciences center, an amount unchanged from past years. It also includes $20 million for tax incentives to life sciences companies that create jobs in Massachusetts. That annual sum was set by the law that created Patrick’s life sciences initiative and is in effect through 2018. Baker initially weighed the possibility of merging the life sciences center into a larger economic development agency — an idea that has since been abandoned. The governor last September named Travis McCready as chief executive of the center. — ROBERT WEISMAN