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The week in business

ADVERTISING

Three Mass. companies drop ads on Laura Ingraham’s show after she mocked Parkland survivor

A Twitter dispute between Fox News host Laura Ingraham and a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., shooting spiraled into a public relations crisis for three Massachusetts companies as teen activist David Hogg led a torrent of online protests against advertisers on the Fox host’s show. TripAdvisor, Wayfair, and Liberty Mutual said they would no longer advertise during the “Ingraham Angle,’’ after she teased Hogg, a high school senior, about being rejected by several colleges to which he had applied. “The decision of an adult to personally criticize a high school student who has lost his classmates in an unspeakable tragedy is not consistent with our values,’’ Wayfair said in a statement after being called out on social media for advertising on Ingraham’s show. Needham-based TripAdvisor said in a statement that the company does not “condone the inappropriate comments made by this broadcaster.’’ “In our view, these statements, focused on a high school student, cross the line of decency,’’ the company said. Liberty Mutual said on Friday that it would no longer advertise on Ingraham’s show because her comments were “inconsistent with our values as a company, especially when it comes to treating others with dignity and respect.’’ — ANDY ROSEN AND JACLYN REISS

FOOD

Magnolia Bakery opens in Boston to long lines

For Bobbie Lloyd, the grand opening of Magnolia Bakery in Faneuil Hall Marketplace Thursday marked something of a return to her Boston roots. Long before she was a celebrity judge on TLC’s “Next Great Baker,’’ and before she lived in New York City, overseeing cupcake duties as Magnolia’s chief baking officer, she attended Boston’s Modern Gourmet Cooking School and later co-owned a restaurant in Brookline that featured classic American desserts. Being back in Boston for the opening this week was nostalgic, to say the least. “This is where my culinary life started,’’ Lloyd said. “My love of food started somewhere else as a child, but my culinary life started here.’’ And with that, Lloyd disappeared into the bustling crowds of people who packed together in a long line that stretched half the length of Quincy Market’s west end, orchestrating the store’s debut as samples of Boston Cream Pie Banana Pudding, a local twist on a company staple, were handed out. Magnolia Bakery first opened in 1996 in New York City’s West Village. Four years later, it was prominently featured in Season 3 of the hit show “Sex and the City,’’ sending fans scrambling to the store’s front doors to get their hands on some homemade sweets. Since then, it has remained a fixture of the cupcake craze, even during a time that feels like fancy doughnuts have taken center stage and cupcake shops locally have closed their doors. — STEVE ANNEAR

PHARMACEUTICALS

Takeda says it may make a bid for Shire

Shire PLC, the Irish drug maker that has most of its operations in Massachusetts, has for months been the subject of takeover rumors. On Wednesday, the whispers grew considerably louder. Japan’s largest drug company, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., said it is considering making a bid for the company — one that analysts predicted could approach $50 billion. Takeda apparently is enticed by Shire’s stock price, which has fallen 45 percent in the past 15 months. It said in a statement that the potential offer “is at a preliminary and exploratory stage and no approach has been made’’ to Shire’s board. “There can be no certainty that an approach, if made, will lead to any transaction,’’ Takeda said. Its cancer research unit, Takeda Oncology, is based in Cambridge. The announcement lifted Shire’s shares more than 12 percent to close at $144.53 on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday, signalling that the second-biggest biopharma employer in Massachusetts could be in play. Takeda said that buying Shire, which specializes in rare-disease treatments as well as the ADHD drug Adderall, would bolster its portfolio of oncology, neuroscience, and gastroenterology drugs. It would also extend Takeda’s reach in the United States and vault the Japanese company into the ranks of the world’s top drug makers. — JONATHAN SALTZMAN

ENERGY

AG Healey wants Legislature to crack down on independent electricity suppliers

Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday called for the Legislature to shut down the market that allows consumers to buy electricity from independent suppliers instead of their local utility, saying they are being hit with millions in extra costs. Healey released a report that showed electric customers who switched to a competitive supplier collectively paid nearly $180 million more than if they had remained with their utility, during a two-year period between July 2015 and July 2017. The report focused on the nearly 500,000 residents who buy directly from a competitive supplier, not residents participating in a group contract organized by their community. Healey said she found patterns that indicate low-income and minority neighborhoods are being targeted with aggressive sales tactics: Thirty-six percent of low-income households received their electricity supplies from a competitive supplier, double the rate among non low-income customers. — JON CHESTO

ENERGY

Massachusetts pulls the plug on Northern Pass project

Eversource Energy’s Northern Pass project suffered a significant and potentially fatal blow Wednesday when Massachusetts pulled the plug on a contract to use the proposed $1.6 billion transmission line to import Canadian hydropower through New Hampshire. Governor Charlie Baker’s administration, working with a selection committee representing three big electric utilities, will instead try to seal a deal with a competing transmission project that would bring the hydropower through western Maine. Eversource said it is not giving up on Northern Pass after spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars developing it. The announcement follows unsuccessful attempts by Eversource to persuade officials in New Hampshire to drop their opposition to the 192-mile Northern Pass. In February, the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee denied a crucial permit for the project, ruling that the huge towers required for portions of the line could despoil the state’s scenic rural countryside and affect the important tourism industry there. Like Northern Pass, the Maine transmission project, from energy company Avangrid, would import more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity from Hydro-Quebec. — JON CHESTO

INSURANCE

John Hancock to return to its Back Bay roots

John Hancock is moving back to the Back Bay. The insurance company said Tuesday that it will relocate more than 1,000 employees from its headquarters in the Seaport District (below) to two properties it owns in the Back Bay, including the longtime Hancock building on Berkeley Street with its distinctive weather beacon. The move represents an unusual development for the booming Seaport District, which has been gaining, not losing, big employers. When Hancock moved its headquarters to the Seaport in 2005, it was one of the first major companies to set down stakes in the neighborhood, which was at the time mostly a sea of parking lots. Since then, an entire business district has grown up around Hancock’s Congress Street location, and the area is now among the most expensive — and crowded — addresses in Boston. Hancock also maintained a presence in the Back Bay, where it has about 2,200 employees, though it is no longer affiliated with the city’s tallest building, the glass skyscraper that bore the insurer’s name for decades. Today, the former Hancock Tower is known as 200 Clarendon. — JON CHESTO AND TIM LOGAN