Government sues eBay over noncompetition agreement

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department alleged Friday that Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay Inc., was intimately involved in making an anticompetitive agreement that prohibited eBay and Intuit Inc. from hiring each other's employees.

In a federal lawsuit, the government said Whitman and Scott Cook, Intuit's founder and executive committee chair, were involved in forming, monitoring and enforcing the anticompetitive agreement. California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a separate lawsuit under state law, which she said contains stronger protections against anticompetitive practices than federal law.

Cook was a member of eBay's board of directors at the same time he was making complaints about eBay's recruiting of Intuit employees.

"eBay's agreement with Intuit hurt employees by lowering the salaries and benefits they might have received and deprived them of better job opportunities at the other company," said acting Assistant Attorney General Joseph Wayland, who is in charge of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division. The division "has consistently taken the position that these kinds of agreements are per se (on their face) unlawful under antitrust laws."

The two companies compete directly for specialized computer engineers and scientists.

The federal lawsuit seeks to prevent eBay from enforcing the agreement and from making similar agreements with other companies.

According to the Justice Department complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., the agreement was in place from 2006 to 2009. Intuit is already subject to a settlement barring it from making such agreements.

The California lawsuit would allow the state to recover damages and ensure that the companies do not engage in such conduct in the future.

California's lawsuit lists Intuit as a co-conspirator.

"If California is going to continue to be the high-tech capital of the world, we can't allow anticompetitive conduct that prevents talent from going where it's put to its highest use," Harris said in a statement.

Whitman, eBay's former CEO, is now chief executive of Hewlett Packard Co. She ran unsuccessfully for governor of California as a Republican in 2010.

eBay's revenues in 2011 were $11.7 billion. Intuit's 2011 revenues were $3.85 billion.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The Ticker

Hostess workers in, Bay State creamed

Nearly 300 Hostess Brands workers in Massachusetts stand to lose their jobs at 13 facilities in 10 communities after the confectionery maker of Twinkies and Ho Ho's sought permission from bankruptcy court to close its business and sell its assets.

The brand said it will promptly move to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders in the wake of a union strike.

Pier 4 apartments break ground

Houston developer Hanover Co. broke ground on 100 Pier 4, a 21-story apartment building on South Boston's waterfront. The $195 million project, set to open in two years, will include 369 residential units as well as 10,800 square feet of ground-floor retail space, 258 underground parking spaces and a one-acre waterfront park.

MCCA seeks hotel proposals

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is seeking proposals for two hotels, totaling between 400 and 500 rooms, on nearly three of the 5.6 acres of land the organization recently purchased near the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Officials said the project is expected to create 175 permanent jobs.

Streetwise Media bought up

Boston Business Journal parent company American City Business Journals has acquired Boston-based digital media company Streetwise Media, which operates the Bostinno website.

Bandgap awarded $1M by Energy Dept.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $1 million to Woburn-based Bandgap Engineering to speed up solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace. Bandgap uses nanowire technology to increase solar-cell efficiency, while also increasing power density and reducing energy costs, the department said.

L TD Bank has promoted Molly J. McLaren, left, to manager of the bank located at 693 Memorial Drive in Chicopee. McLaren, a member of the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, joined TD Bank in 2011 as an assistant manager in Westfield.

L Real estate firm Peabody Properties Inc. has hired Doreen Donovan as vice president of administration and quality assurance. Donovan previously served as vice president of administration and compliance for Corcoran Jennison Management/CMJ Management Company.

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Focus Electric needs more range

The long and winding road to building a better electric car continues, though it is a very long road, indeed. Case in point is the Focus Electric, the first passenger vehicle from Ford to be powered solely by electricity.

It looks like a gas-powered Focus and rides like one, too. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, you won't be going very far. A full charge will only get you about 75 miles down the road (maybe a 100 miles if you drive gingerly). That's a real deal-breaker for most drivers. Who wants to worry about making it to work or getting home before the battery runs down?

Realistically, electric cars today are only for the well-heeled early adopters, who will use them as a secondary vehicle or simply don't need to drive long distances.

Having said that, I will say the Focus Electric is a step in the right direction. Not as futuristic-looking as the Nissan Leaf, it charges in half the time. It's a nice, sporty car with sweeping headlights and a stylish, Aston Martin-type grille.

A lithium-ion battery system powers the vehicle. The 107-kilowatt motor is only equivalent to a 140-horsepower engine, but since it's electric it produces 184 ft.-lbs. of torque, providing super-quick acceleration.

Handling is good, with tight cornering and responsive steering. It's a quiet car, inside and out.

The regenerative brakes are excellent and you can squeeze out a few extra miles by braking gently. One problem with using batteries to power your car is where to put them. Ford didn't do us any favors by sticking them in the trunk, severely limiting cargo space. The rear seats do fold down, though, when you want more room.

The Ford Electric offers push-button start, dual zone auto climate control, rear-view camera, blind spot mirrors and rain-sensing wipers. High quality sound comes from nine Sony speakers and the MyFord Touch system allows you to control your phone, music, navigation and temperature either by voice or touch. The system works well once you figure out the overly complicated design.

Showing Ford's eco-consciousness, the seats are made out of recycled materials and the cushions are made of bio-based foam derived from plant seed oils.

Ford has partnered with Best Buy to encourage you to purchase their 240-volt home charger ($1,500) that will give you a full charge in 3-4 hours. If you stick with your regular 120-volt AC outlet, you're looking at an 18-20 hour charging time. The charging port, located near the driver's side door, shows you its status with a pleasant blue-glowing ringlight that grows in diameter the longer you charge.

Getting America's drivers to embrace electric vehicles will be a long-term project, given their limited range. The Tesla Motor Co. makes a drool-worthy model that can go up to 300 miles on a single charge, but it costs upwards of $80,000. Until the infrastructure is in place, whereby you can simply go to your local station for a quick (minutes, not hours) charge, EVs will remain a tough sell.

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What happens if Twinkies really do go away?

Let's not panic. We all know that Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder bread and the rest of Hostess Brands' oddly everlasting foods aren't going away any time soon, even if the food culture that created them is gasping its last.

Yes, Hostess is shutting down. And odds seem to favor the roughly century-old company disappearing from our corporate landscape. But before you rush out to stockpile a strategic Twinkie reserve, consider a few things. Namely, that Twinkies never die. You know full well that the snack cakes down at your corner 7-Eleven are going to outlive us all. Probably even after they've been consumed.

And then there's the acquisition-happy nature of the business world, an environment that increasingly prizes intellectual property above all. It's hard to imagine the fading away of brands as storied and valuable as Ho Hos, Ring Dings and Yodels. Within hours of announcing the closure Friday, the company already had put out word that Zingers, Fruit Pies and all the other brands were up for grabs.

Even if production really did stop, how long do you think it would take for some enterprising investor intoxicated by a cocktail of nostalgia and irony for the treats Mom used to pack in his G.I. Joe lunch box to find a way to roll out commemorative Twinkies? Special edition holiday Ho Hos? It's just the nature of our product-centered world. Brands don't die, even when perhaps they should.

But let's pretend for a moment they did. What would we lose if Twinkies fell off the culinary cliff?

Certainly few obesity-minded nutritionists would bemoan the loss. With some 500 million Twinkies produced a year, each packing 150 calories... Well, let's just leave it by saying that shaving 75 billion calories from the American diet sure could add up to a whole lot of skinny jeans.

Except that Twinkies aren't merely a snack cake, nor just junk food. They are iconic in ways that transcend how Americans typically fetishize food. But ultimately, they fell victim to the very fervor that created them.

Despite the many urban legends about the indestructability of Twinkies — Did you know they are made with the same chemical used in embalming? Or that they last 5, no 15, no 50 years? — and the many sadly true stories about the atrocious ingredients used to create them today, these treats once upon a time were the real deal.

They started out back in 1930, an era when people actually paid attention to seasonality in foods. James A. Dewar, who worked at Hostess predecessor Continental Baking Company in Schiller, Ill., wanted to find a way to use the bakery's shortbread pans year round. You see, the shortbread was filled with strawberries, but strawberries were only available for a few weeks a year.

So he used the oblong pans to bake spongecakes, which he then filled with banana cream. Bananas were a more regular crop.

Let's pause so you can wrap your mind around that for a moment. Twinkies once contained real fruit. Twinkies were created because of seasonality.

All went swimmingly until World War II hit and rationing meant — say it with me — Yes! We have no bananas. And so was born the vanilla cream Twinkie, which was vastly more popular anyway. Even then, there was a crafted element to these treats. The filling was added by hand using a foot pedal-powered pump. Pump too hard and the Twinkies exploded. These days you only see that when teenagers post YouTube videos of themselves microwaving them.

It was around this time that American food culture did an about face. It was an era when the industrialization and processing of cheap food wasn't just desired, it was glorified. Cans and chemicals could set you free. And they certainly set Twinkies free of the nuisance of a short shelf life. It's not formaldehyde that keeps these snack cakes feeling fresh, it's the lack of any dairy products in the so-called "cream."

"Something about it just absolutely grabbed the popular culture imagination," says Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies — and no fan of junk food. "It's the prototypical indestructible junk food. It was the sort of height to which American technological ingenuity could go to create a product that was almost entirely artificial, but gave the appearance of eclairs."

When Twinkies signed on as a sponsor of the "Howdy Doody" show during the 1950s, their cultural legacy was sealed. Taglines such as "The snacks with a snack in the middle" began etching themselves into generations of young minds and it was considered perfectly fine that Twinkie the Kid would lasso and drag children before stuffing his sugar bombs in their faces.

It was the snack cake heyday. Twinkies were being deep-fried at state fairs, doing cameos in movies like "Ghost Busters" and "Die Hard" and being pushed by Spider-Man in comic books. A pre-vegan President Bill Clinton even signed off on including Twinkies in the nation's millennium time capsule (the two-pack was later removed and consumed by his council overseeing such matters for fear mice would add themselves to the time capsule).

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Fidelity shifts to Seaport

Fidelity Investments is moving its corporate headquarters to Summer Street on the edge of the Innovation District — a change that analysts say signals a major shift in the Financial District toward the Southie waterfront and reaffirms the financial giant's commitment to Boston.

"The hub of the financial services industry is clearly moving toward the water. Parking is easier, commuting is easier — both for Fidelity's employees and its clients — and they're right across the street from some of the biggest financial players in town," said Jim Lowell, editor-in-chief of the independent newsletter fidelityinvestor.com, referring to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and BlackRock. "I think we'll likely see the complete redefinition of the Financial District away from State Street."

Fidelity, led by founder and chairman Edward "Ned" Johnson, first acquired the 245 Summer St. property in 1999. After initially sharing space in the building with other businesses, the company began to increase its presence in the 14-story, 900,000-square-foot property, and about 2,900 of its employees are based there today. The 600 at its current headquarters and its other buildings on Devonshire and Congress streets will remain there until the company decides the future of that block, said Vincent Loporchio, a Fidelity spokesman.

"The new headquarters is in a prime real estate area that offers lots of options," Loporchio told the Herald. "We've long felt it was a terrific part of the city."

Fidelity was a pioneer in the Innovation District when there was little else there, he said, noting that its developments included the World Trade Center and the Seaport Hotel.

Since then, the area has attracted everything from the Institute for Contemporary Art to the high-end clothing store Louis Boston to the startup accelerator and competition MassChallenge — a string of coups that the head of The Boston Harbor Association credited largely to Mayor Thomas M. Menino,, who branded the area the Innovation District.

"He created the image that this is the place to be," said Vivien Li. "It's about innovation, creativity, edginess. To be in this area is to be in a very exciting part of the city."

Ultimately, Fidelity's move is also good news for Boston and the state, said John Bonnanzio, editor of Fidelity Monitor & Insight, an independent investment advisory newsletter.

"Psychologically, it's a shot in the arm and takes off the table any concern that the company would move elsewhere," Bonnanzio said.

In March 2011, Fidelity announced it would close its Marlboro campus and send most of those 1,100 jobs to its offices in Merrimack, N.H., and Smithfield, R.I. Last month, the company said it would build a $200 million data center in Nebraska.

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Nokia Lumia 920 brightest light for Windows phones

The masterfully botched launch of Windows 8 phones brought zero lines of eager consumers to wireless retailers across the nation.

But here we have Microsoft's last chance to show its smartphone gambit is for real. The Windows 8 platform has been refined and supercharged, with its capabilities fully showcased in the Nokia Lumia 920.

It is, to put it plainly, a beast. The first thing you'll notice is its heft. Nokia's big bet is that the technology packed into this 6.5-ounce, 5.13-inch frame will be worth the tradeoff in bulk. Near-field communication, wireless charging and all-day battery life are some of those features.

The buzz is that the Lumia 920 sports the best camera of any of the Windows phones, but I would go further to say it's among the best smartphone cameras on the market, with remarkable low-light capabilities and image stabilization.

Nokia's camera comes with an excellent suite of exclusive apps. Cinemagraph allows you to animate part of your picture, similar to a built-in Gif maker. Smart Shoot allows you to take a picture of something blocked by moving objects. For instance, if you're at the Louvre and hordes of tourists are walking by the Mona Lisa when you want to take a picture, Smart Shoot will take a series of photos and splice them together, erasing the people blocking your view.

A winning feature of Windows phones has been its people hub for integrating social information — tweets, status updates, photos — from your contacts into one stream. The new OS takes this a step further, allowing you to group your contacts into "rooms." It's similar to Google Plus circles, but with deep integration into Microsoft Apps and office features, so you can push out documents and hold chats.

With high-quality tablets and ultrabooks galore, the Windows ecosystem is improving. And at just $99 on-contract with AT&T, the Lumia 920 will not disappoint if you're OK with its size.

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Crowd-funding finds way to real estate financing

Crowd-funding has transformed the startup landscape, but can the insular world of real estate benefit from this model as well?

It's being tried in different forms, mostly centered on commercial real estate.

The Boston startup Collaperty, for instance, hopes to connect proven investors with real estate deals. But whether this is the future of property dealing or a dead-end dot-com fantasy is anyone's guess.

The ability for crowdfunding — or democratizing, crowd-sourced investment — was expanded by the federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act passed in the spring.

Even before that, sites such as Kickstarter and IndieGogo were replacing rich uncles everywhere.

Now, the real estate industry is an increasing focus.

Some sites operate like Fundrise, which allows investors in Washington, D.C., and Virginia to invest nominal sums of money in real estate projects. For instance, 175 investors contributed a total of $325,000 to fund an urban revitalization project in D.C. in exchange for 30 percent of the profits.

These sites tap into hostility against Wall Street, the egalitarian sense that the Internet can open up opportunities previously reserved for tycoons. Also, the model tends to work well for high-risk, bordering on charitable projects.

Yet that is not the premise of locally grown Collaperty.

Rishi Palriwala, 28, wants his site to cater to proven investors. He's aiming to employ a system of vetting that will weed out the inexperienced.

An amateur real estate investor and corporate finance analyst by day, Palriwala envisions a site with many revenue streams: posting fees for sellers and sponsors who organize the deals, along with subscription fees for providing commercial real estate analytics and third-party escrow services.

"It's this whole idea of collaborating with qualified investors," he said. "Real estate's a pretty private investment vehicle. We're trying to add a little transparency to how that's done."

Commercial real estate is naturally collaborative, with most deals involving some type of joint venture and a variety of equity arrangements. Yet the commercial real estate establishment hasn't warmed to the idea of crowd-funding entering its sphere of influence.

David Begelfer, head of the commercial real estate association NAIOP, said the risks are too complex.

"There are so many elements involved in making this type of investment," he said. "There may be a place for it, but there also might be an element of risk and potential for loss that ultimately might lead to a crackdown on it."

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J.C. Penney CEO tries to change the way we shop

NEW YORK — J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson seems unfazed that the department store chain's mounting losses and sales declines have led to growing criticism of his plan to change the way we shop. Perhaps that's because this isn't the first time during Johnson's 30-year career that he's attempted what seemed impossible.

People predicted he'd fail at selling high-end housewares and designer dresses at discounter Target, but shoppers still flock there years later for cheap chic goods. Likewise, almost no one believed that the Apple stores he designed to sell the consumer electronics giant's gadgets would make money. Yet Apple's retail operations have become the most profitable in the industry.

At the time, both decisions seemed radical. Now, they each are viewed as strokes of genius.

But Johnson's latest gamble is shaping up to be his biggest. He's not only aiming to reverse the fortunes of Penney, a 110-year-old chain that has had sales declines in four of the past five years as it's struggled to adapt to changing consumer tastes and shopping habits. He's also attempting to do something no other retailer has before: reinvent the department store from the ground up.

Since leaving Apple to become Penney's CEO in November, Johnson has been overhauling everything from the retailer's pricing to its merchandise to its stores. He got rid of most sales. He's brought in hip brands. And he's replacing rows of clothing racks with small shops that make the stores feel like outdoor mini malls.

But since Penney started the changes, the chain has reported three consecutive quarters of big losses on steep sales declines. Its stock has lost more than half its value. Its credit rating is in junk status. And critics are beginning to doubt that Johnson has what it takes to make the chain cool.

"He's trying to start a retail revolution without an army of consumers behind him," says Burt Flickinger, III, president of a retail consultancy. "Penney will suffer dire financial and competitive circumstances as a result."

But Johnson, 53, a Midwest native who speaks about his vision for J.C. Penney Co. with boyish enthusiasm, is undeterred: "Lots of people think we're crazy. But that's what it takes to get ahead."

THE BEGINNINGS: 'NO MORE JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS'

Virtually no one questioned Johnson's savvy when it was announced in June 2011 that he was leaving his role as Apple Inc.'s senior vice president of retail to take over the top job at Penney, a chain that had gained a reputation in recent years of having un-hip, boring stores and merchandise. To the contrary there were lofty expectations for the man who had made Apple's stores hip places to shop and before that, pioneered Target Corp.'s successful "cheap chic" strategy.

Johnson, who says that his biggest inspirations in life are "sunrises" and "smiles," spent several months before becoming Penney's CEO traipsing across the globe to find ideas on how to transform the company. On the itinerary: meetings with executives at trendy retailers and designers such as Gap, J. Crew, Diane Von Furstenberg and Ralph Lauren.

During these trips, Johnson hatched an idea to make Penney stores appealing not only to its core of middle-income shoppers, but also to new groups of younger and higher-income customers. Johnson decided to focus on three areas: price, merchandise and the stores.

Johnson started as Penney's CEO in November 2011. In his first couple of months in the role, Johnson hired big-name executives that he trusted. Among them, Michael Francis, a top Target executive that he'd met while he worked there, was brought in as president to help redefine Penney's brand.

Johnson's boldest move came on Feb. 1 of this year when he rolled out new pricing in Penney's 1,100 stores. That's virtually unheard of in retail, where significant changes are typically tested in a few locations for several months before being rolled out nationally.

Johnson says that Penney didn't have several months to waste. Testing would've been "impossible," he says, because Penney needed quick results.

Johnson's plan was designed to wean customers off the markdowns they'd become accustomed to, but that eat into profits. He ditched the nearly 600 sales Penney offered throughout the year for a three-tiered strategy that permanently lowered prices on all items in the store by 40 percent, and offered monthlong sales on select items and periodic clearance events throughout the year.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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J.C. Penney's journey from 1 store to 1,100

NEW YORK — A look at J.C. Penney's milestones:

—1902: James Cash Penney, son of a Baptist preacher and farmer, opens The Golden Rule, a dry goods and clothing store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The name was based on his guiding principle of building a business through serving the community with fair dealing and honest value.

—1913: Incorporated in Utah as the J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and the Golden Rule name was phased out.

—1914: Headquarters moves from Salt Lake City, Utah, to New York City.

—1929: Begins selling shares as a publicly traded company.

—1951: Store sales exceed $1 billion for the first time.

—1963: Issues its first catalog.

—1971: James Cash Penney dies at age 95.

—1972: Launches first national television.

—1979: Catalog sales pass $1 billion for the first time.

—1992: Headquarters moves to Plano, Tex.

—1994: Launches jcpenney.com, its online store.

—2005: Penney's e-commerce business surpasses $1 billion in sales.

—2009: Opens its first store in Manhattan.

—2010: Becomes the exclusive retailer of Liz Claiborne and Claiborne in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Exits catalog business. Introduces mobile coupons.

—2011: Ron Johnson, a former Apple executive, becomes CEO.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Old is new again at historic Lewis Wharf

This duplex condo on the top two floors of Lewis Wharf has been rehabbed into a contemporary-looking condo that works well in this historic brick-and-beam 1830s building.

Unit 517-617 combines two units, with the lower floor opened up to create a large dining/living space with 11-foot beam ceilings, brick walls and sliding-glass doors with views of Boston Harbor. Wide-pine hardwood floors have been added and a new maple and granite kitchen has a matching beverage bar in the dining area.

This 1,658-square-foot condo has three bedrooms, plus a study that could be a fourth bedroom. It's on the market for $1,599,000.

The venerable gray granite Lewis Wharf building, once a shipping warehouse, has 95 condos, and features a 24/7 concierge, a rose garden and a seasonal heated pool at the harbor's edge. Its four residential floors have carpeted hallways with sconce lights and original gray granite lintels.

The unit opens into a large brick-walled dining/living area with two closets off to one side, one for coats and the other to serve as a pantry. The dining area, framed by a nicely redone staircase to the top floor, has a built-in beverage bar with gray granite counters and a small refrigerator and wine cooler. Overhead is a stunning contemporary light fixture hanging from the 11-foot beam ceilings.

Straight ahead is the living room with overhead pendant lighting, a granite-backed media built-in and glass doors out to a balcony with harbor views.

To the left of the dining area is a recessed-lit galley kitchen entirely redone in 2009 with 25 maple cabinets, gray granite counters, a beige ceramic tile floor and Maytag stainless-steel appliances.

Off the living room is a bedroom with pine floors and a double-mirrored door closet. The adjacent full bathroom was redone three years ago with beige ceramic tile floors and walls for a combination tub and shower. There's a linen closet and a white Carrara marble-topped vanity.

A staircase leads to the two bedrooms and study on the second floor, all with 10-foot beam ceilings. At the top of the landing is a den/media room with contemporary lighting, two large closets, one outfitted for an in-unit washer/dryer hookup, which the condo board has recently approved.

The master bedroom has a high-end contemporary overhead light fixture, brick walls, pine floors, two large closets and two floor-to-ceiling windows with harbor views.

The second bedroom has one window with harbor views and a double-door mirrored closet.

The bathroom for these bedrooms was redone three years ago, and features beige ceramic tile floors and walls for a tub and shower, a linen closet and white Carrara marble-topped vanity.

There's also a study without a closet that could be used for a fourth bedroom, if needed.

There's a public laundry room with great city views on the sixth floor of the building, and on-site parking is $250 a month.

For more information or to see this property, call Carmela Laurella of CL Waterfront Properties at 617-624-9700.

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