B5 ONLINE TODAY B O S T O N . C O M / B U S I N E S S Ticker: Local news updates Filter: Strategy and ideas Investing: Portfolio tracking E-mail: Stock alerts, company news Business 13.66 5.14 DOW JONES NASDAQ 13,408.62 2,603.23 FULL MARKET COVERAGE, B7 Th e Boston Glob e S aturday , Ju n e 3 0, 2007 Business Claiborne executive will run Talbots in brief THE REGION Biogen Idec finance chief to leave firm in August Peter Kellogg, chief financial officer at Biogen Idec Inc. for the past seven years, resigned to take a similar post at Merck & Co., the New Jersey pharmaceutical giant. Merck dwarfs Biogen Idec, with 2006 sales of $22.6 billion, compared with the Cambridge company’s $2.6 billion. Kellogg will leave Biogen Idec Aug. 10, and the company said it would name a replacement in the ‘‘next several weeks.’’ (Jeffrey Krasner) Retailer seeks revival of beleaguered brand Leasing broker selected for Seaport Square project Developer John B. Hynes III and partner Morgan Stanley said they have selected Richards Barry Joyce & Partners LLC of Boston as the exclusive broker for leasing 1.5 million square feet of office and lab space planned for Seaport Square on the South Boston Waterfront. The 23 acres formerly owned by Frank H. McCourt Jr., currently used for parking, are being designed as a 6.5-million-square-foot neighborhood. John P. Barry, a partner at RBJ, said Seaport Square will have an advantage over some Boston office buildings about to start construction because unlike others it can provide laboratory space which is in short supply in Cambridge, Greater Boston’s primary lab market. Seaport Square’s office and lab space are planned for late 2010 and early 2011. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.) Sun Microsystems sells Burlington site to Nordblom Real estate firm Nordblom Co. said it’s acquiring the Burlington campus of Sun Microsystems Inc. for $212 million. Nordblom has offices in Burlington, Brookline, and Boston. Jones Lang LaSalle, a Chicago real estate money management and services firm, represented Sun Microsystems in the transaction and procured the buyer, Nordblom said. As part of the purchase, Sun Microsystems entered into a long-term lease agreement to occupy 450,000 square feet of the 1.4 million square feet of buildings and undeveloped land, said Nordblom. (Chris Reidy) Sycamore plans 10% cut of workforce, take charge Telecom network equipment maker Sycamore Networks Inc. said it will cut 46 jobs, or 10 percent of its workforce, as part of a realignment plan. The Chelmsford company expects to take related charges of $4 million to $7 million, which will be recorded in the six months ending Oct. 27. After the layoffs, which are expected to be completed by the end of July, the company will have approximately 415 employees worldwide. (AP) THE NATION Bear Stearns demotes head of asset management unit Bear Stearns Cos. demoted the head of its asset management unit and brought in a former Lehman Brothers executive to ‘‘restore investor confidence,’’ after two of the firm’s hedge funds nearly collapsed last week. Bear Stearns named Jeffrey Lane chairman and chief executive of Bear Stearns Asset Management. He replaces Richard Marin, who will stay with the unit as a senior adviser to Lane. (AP) Banking regulators tell lenders to narrow limits US banking regulators told mortgage lenders to toughen standards for subprime home loans in a belated effort to end abuses that led to a surge in defaults and the highest foreclosure rate in five years. Lenders, in most cases, should verify income levels instead of relying on borrowers’ statements, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other regulators said in issuing guidelines. They also said banks should consider potential interest rate increases when judging whether homebuyers can pay off loans. (Bloomberg) By Jenn Abelson GLOBE STAFF PHOTOS BY BILL GREENE/GLOBE STAFF Buyers queue up at the AT&T store on Boylston Street yesterday, waiting for a chance to get an iPhone. This obscure object of desire Not only cool, but very likely groundbreaking By Hiawatha Bray GLOBE STAFF After the relentless buildup of the past six months, the temptation to trash Apple Inc.’s new iPhone is pretty much irresistible. If only I could. It wouldn’t be fair; Apple and partner AT&T Inc. handed me a demo unit one hour before the iPhone went on sale. That’s not nearly enough for a proper review, but plenty of time to deliver a jolt of wonder and delight. No doubt this is what the marketing masters at Apple had in mind, and, it has worked. The iPhone is exactly as cool as you’ve heard, and then some. For it’s not just cool; this phone is important, in the same way that Apple’s first Macintosh computer was important. The Mac showed us a better way to interact with computers, and forced the entire industry to follow its lead. Here we go again. The thing has just three buttons. One puts it to sleep; one controls the volume of its better-thanyou’d-expect speakers. The third ignites the iPhone’s main menu, an array of elegantly self-explanatory buttons that glow against a deep black backdrop. From here on out, you control everything by touching those buttons, or the other buttons and windows that leap onto the screen. Everybody knows about the touch screen. But you don’t know how well it works. There’s no tactile feedback, no click of a button hitting bottom. You hardly care, so cleverly has Apple dreamed up smart visual substitutes. Consider the QWERTY keyboard that apREVIEW, Page B6 Harvard OK’s some Darfur investments Apple fueled frenzy for its iPhone by trumpeting allure of features while refusing to let anyone near By Carolyn Y. Johnson GLOBE STAFF Norrice Auen and her 18-year-old son, Luke, arrived at the Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham on Thursday evening. Mom spent the night on the sidewalk, sleeping on a yoga mat and a Red Sox towel. Luke bunked in the Hummer. But they were only second in line when the Apple store finally threw open its doors at 6 p.m. yesterday, capping weeks of hype and anticipation over the latest must-have tech accessory. People skipped work, played hooky, and paid friends or strangers to stand in line on their behalf — all to be among the first to lay their hands on an iPhone. ‘‘My grandmother’s doing well, but my co-workers don’t think so,’’ said a Hingham resident who sat in a lawn chair reading ‘‘Mao: The Unknown Story’’ and asked to remain anonymous because he had left word at the office that he needed to travel to see his grandmother. The launch of the phone — on a summer Friday — was the culmination of a perfectly played marketing pitch. Take an object that people already fiddle with compulsively. Add a screen that makes the device even more touchable, and emphasize the allure of touching it. Then don’t let anyone near one for six months. ‘‘It builds the mystique. What makes something more mysterious than you can’t touch it?’’ said Kathy Sharpe, chief executive of Sharpe Partners, an interactive ad agency based in New Talbots Inc. yesterday tapped Liz Claiborne president Trudy F. Sullivan, a Wellesley native who began her retail career at Jordan Marsh in Boston, to be chief executive of the Hingham merchant to help turn around the beleaguered brand. Talbots stock, which has suffered from shrinking profits and stiffer competition, posted its biggest gain in nearly a year after the appointment. Sullivan will succeed Arnold Zetcher, who helped build Talbots Trudy F. over the past 20 years Sullivan from a private business into a publicly traded company with about 1,400 stores. Sullivan, 57, says she wants to do a ‘‘complete merchandising diagnosis’’ of the retailer, known for its classic tailored styles, and help bring a more updated approach to the brand. ‘‘There’s a really good opportunity to reinvigorate the Talbots offer for the consumer,’’ Sullivan said yesterday in an interview. ‘‘Talbots will benefit from a fresh pair of eyes looking at a lot of the issues and studying from all angles. Talbots is a 60-year-old brand, and it’s gone through several phases. It’s just about to embark on its next one.’’ Sullivan said she also wants to improve the performance of recently acquired J. Jill and better leverage Talbots’ expertise of the baby-boomer consumer to accelerate growth. Talbots bought J. Jill last year for $517 million after Liz Claiborne Inc. unsuccessfully attempted a hostile takeover of the Quincy clothier in 2005. Talbots interviewed a number of internal and external candidates, Zetcher said, but it quickly became clear that TALBOTS, Page B6 Talbots Inc. Daily closing price $26 Yesterday: $25.03 25 24 23 22 May 29: $21.41 IPHONE, Page B6 21 iFRENZY Check out our special report on the iPhone launch, including photo galleries and related stories, at boston.com/business. & 20 June 7: $20.84 May June SOURCE Bloomberg News GLOBE STAFF Coming tomorrow By Matthew Keenan BLOOMBERG NEWS ... Etc. Xerox Corp. acquired Rhode Island office equipment dealer Blackstone Valley Office Systems to increase sales to midsize business customers in New England. Terms weren’t disclosed. . . . Tim Hortons Inc. chief executive Paul House said he doesn’t intend to abandon unprofitable stores in New England, addressing recent speculation Canada’s biggest doughnut chain may reduce its US presence. Tim Hortons, which has about 40 New England locations, said in March that if sales don’t improve in some stores in the region, it would review the viability of those locations . . . Bank of America Corp. raised $1.78 billion in an initial public offering of a private equity fund backed by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. The Charlotte, N.C., bank sold 71 million nonvoting units in Conversus Capital LP at $25 apiece, the fund said. Calpers and Boston’s Harvard Management Co. bought 30 million units for $750 million. (Globe wire services) GL B5 23:12 THIRD Harvard University can own shares of Asian oil companies tied to war-ridden Sudan if it holds them in accounts, such as mutual funds, that the institution doesn’t control directly, a governing panel said. Harvard’s Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility also voted to prohibit direct ownership of stock in Oil & Natural Gas Corp., an Indian company involved in a joint venture with a Sudanesegovernment firm. The Cambridge university, whose endowment was valued at $29.2 billion a year ago, made the disclosure in a statement yesterday. Harvard had halted direct ownership in two Chinese oil firms because of their ties to Sudan’s government. Under pressure from students, the university in February began examining indirect investments made through exchange-traded funds. A four-year conflict in the Darfur region has killed over 200,000 people and forced 2 million from their homes. The panel ‘‘has concluded that no change in the university’s divestment policy with respect to indirect investment is called for,’’ according to the statement. Fifty-four schools, including the University of CaliDARFUR, Page B6 FRED FIELD FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Real Estate Business&Money Careers Many owners of summer camps aren’t anxious to cash out to the highest bidder when they retire. They instead try to pass the business on to those who want to keep the camp experience alive. All too often in the funeral business where prices can vary dramatically, consumers aren’ t aware they can comparison shop. Now one company is trying to make that easier via the Internet. Knowing how to interview is an acquired skill. Listen, question, and judge deftly and you’ll learn more during a doctor’s visit or a conference with your child’s teacher. • • •