RETAIL

Ruling prompts Staples, Office Depot to call off merger

A federal judge delivered a staggering blow to Staples Inc. on Tuesday, backing the decision by government regulators to block the Framingham company’s $6.3 billion takeover of rival Office Depot Inc. Staples, the largest US office supply company, was counting on the deal with No. 2 Office Depot to help it survive shrinking revenue, a shift to online sales, and stiff competition from Amazon.com and Walmart. But the Federal Trade Commission went to court in December to halt the merger, arguing that it would drive up prices for big customers. Following weeks of testimony, US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sided with the FTC. After Sullivan’s ruling, Staples and Office Depot called off the deal. Staples said it would consider “strategic alternatives’’ for its European business, cut an additional $300 million of costs by 2018, close more stores, and seek to grab a bigger share of the market for midsize companies by cutting prices and hiring more salespeople. Ron Sargent, Staples’ chairman and chief executive officer, said the company wouldn’t appeal the judge’s decision so it could “move on with our strategic plan.’’ Staples will also have to pay Office Depot a $250 million break-up fee, under the terms of their merger agreement. — DEIRDRE FERNANDES

REAL ESTATE

Judge OK’s Children’s Hospital building at garden

A judge on Monday allowed Boston Children’s Hospital to move ahead with a controversial project to construct a new clinical building over a healing garden beloved by many patients, their families, and hospital employees. A group of taxpayers advocating to save the Prouty Garden sued the hospital in Suffolk Superior Court last month, arguing that Children’s Hospital had illegally begun construction before gaining approval from the state Department of Public Health. The group asked for a court injunction to halt the project. Judge Kenneth W. Salinger said in his ruling Monday that garden supporters so far failed to prove that the hospital is acting illegally and denied the injunction. But the case remains open, and the judge could reconsider his ruling if the plaintiffs present additional evidence in the future. Gregor McGregor, a lawyer for the garden supporters, called that part of the judge’s decision a “silver lining.’’ Children’s Hospital, which had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit altogether, said in a statement that it was “pleased that the court’s decision today will allow this project to continue.’’ Meanwhile, Children’s is seeking state approval for the $1 billion expansion of its campus in Boston’s Longwood neighborhood, including a new 11-story clinical building on the site of the Prouty Garden. The approval process with the Department of Public Health began in December and is still pending. In court filings, the hospital said it is simply doing preliminary site preparation and will not permanently close the Prouty Garden until the approval process is complete. — PRIYANKA DAYAL MCCLUSKEY

MARKETS

Acacia Communications IPO reaps $103.5m

Acacia Communications Inc. of Maynard, which makes networking equipment, sold $103.5 million of stock in its initial public offering Thursday night, the first Massachusetts tech company to go public in nearly a year. The outlook for IPOs has been dim since last summer, and the market for new technology stocks particularly slow, as investors balk at the high private-market valuations granted to so many fast-growing but unprofitable tech companies. Acacia sold 4.5 million shares at $23 each, according to a company statement on Thursday, the top end of the range it was seeking. The only other technology company to debut on Wall Street in 2016 is SecureWorks Corp., a cybersecurity company spun out in April by Dell Inc. And even after SecureWorks reduced the size and price of its initial offering, its shares have since been trading below its debut price. — CURT WOODWARD

BIIOTECH

Ariad cuts could presage a sale

Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday it would divest its European operations, a cost-cutting move that may be a precursor to a sale of the Cambridge company. The company will transfer 125 employees of its Swiss-based business to Incyte Corp., which will also get European marketing rights to Iclusig, a treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia. Ariad, which cut 90 jobs in March, will be left with 275 workers in the United States. A key provision of its agreement with Incyte gives an eventual purchaser of Ariad the option to buy back European rights to Iclusig. The so-called change-of-control provision is sometimes included when drug companies license the rights to a medicine, but it is far from standard. In addition to Iclusig, the sole approved Ariad therapy, the company is expected later this year to apply for regulatory approval of a second therapy, Brigatinib, which treats lung cancer. The company, which is also experimenting with other treatments for rare types of cancer, recently changed its top management team and is in the midst of a strategic review. — ROBERT WEISMAN

REAL ESTATE

BRA approves new apartments in several city neighborhoods

Boston’s housing boom is spilling over into more corners of the city. Two of the largest developments Dorchester has seen in a generation — nearly 900 apartments combined — won approval from city officials Thursday night. So did a new apartment building in a stretch of Brighton that’s bubbling with new development. And smaller apartment and condo projects in Mission Hill, West Roxbury, and along Beacon Street near the Brookline border were OK’d, as well. Taken together, the projects reflect a growing surge of new development in neighborhoods beyond downtown and hot stretches of South Boston, the South End, and the Fenway that have been the focus of new development in recent years. And they have the potential to add housing — in some cases at lower costs — in neighborhoods where demand has fast outpaced supply. But the biggest project approved at a marathon session of the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s board Thursday was a three-building complex on Seaport Boulevard that would include 733 apartments and condos above retail space and a large underground parking garage. At $864 million, it would be among the most expensive construction projects to come out of Boston’s current building boom. — TIM LOGAN

TRANSPORTATION

Proposed Boston-NY seaplane service faces questions

The two companies seeking to launch seaplane service in Boston Harbor say their first flight tests in the harbor took place last week without any significant hitch, in or over the water. But they’re still going to face some turbulence — on land. Three politicians who represent South Boston are raising concerns about the effect on their neighborhood’s northern waterfront, citing the amphibious planes’ noise and potential navigation hazards. Executives from the two companies — Tailwind and Cape Air — say they hope to allay those concerns by meeting with local leaders and familiarizing them with the planes, which the companies want to fly between Boston and a landing area at 23rd Street in Manhattan. The Federal Aviation Administration will decide whether these companies can offer regular service in and out of the harbor, and FAA officials declined to say how the tests went this week. The elected officials who expressed concerns — City Councilor Michael Flaherty, state Representative Nick Collins, and state Senator Linda Dorcena Forry — could influence the FAA’s decision-making and how Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s administration handles the seaplanes’ arrival. — JON CHESTO