Five things: Local Fortune 500, a new HQ, homing pigeons and a new sport: Data diving
Good morning, Boston. Happy National Ketchup Day. When my daughter was growing up, ketchup was not a condiment, it was an entire food group. Now, here are the five things you need to know in local business news to start your busy Wednesday.
1. The Michelin Guide is Eurocentric, elitist and now it's in Boston
Could a clam shack actually get a Michelin star? What makes a tire company an authority on cuisine worldwide?Is Michelin merely a well-regarded shakedown? An Emerson College expert in food studies has the answer.
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2. Boston Globe stops reporting digital subscriber numbers
Don Seiffert reports that The Boston Globe has stopped the periodic reporting of its number of digital subscribers at a time when its online subscription growth is slowing.
3. CVS, TJX top local companies in Fortune 500 rankings
The largest companies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are climbing up the Fortune 500 List, and Maya Shavit reports on where those 23 companies now stand.
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4. French manufacturing-software maker eyes Boston for HQ
A Paris-based company that makes software for biomanufacturing operations has closed a $25 million funding round and plans to use the money to open its North American headquarters in Boston, Jess Aloe reports.
5. NWN Corp. acquires second IT company in eight months
Eli Chavez reports that Boston-based IT services company NWN Corp. has acquired a Missouri-based IT company known for its expertise in Amazon Web Services cloud technology, generative AI, and AWS Connect, a customer service offering from Amazon.
What else you need to know
By the numbers
129 feet — height of a proposed seven-story building on Lansdowne Street that would loom over Fenway Park's Green Monster
loom over Fenway Park's Green Monster $50.4 million — funds raised for charities in the 2025 Boston Marathon, surpassing the previous fundraising record of $45.7 million set last year
surpassing the previous fundraising record 50 —
attorneys and staff at Faber Daeufer & Itrato PC, a boutique biopharma law firm that is now part of
Washington, D.C.–based Crowell & Moring LLP
What's going on?
The ALX Business Summit takes place today at GBH Studios from noon to 7 p.m., where Latino businesses will be showcased, awards will be given, and Gov. Maura Healey and Amy Kershaw, commissioner of early education and care, will join ALX President and CEO Eneida Román in a conversation on childcare and the economy.
Names and faces
After retiring two months ago as the leader of Liberty Mutual, David Long is now a board director of MassMutual.
Where's the money?
Small-business grants you can apply for in June — and where to find them.
Today in history
On this day in 1851 an abolitionist newspaper published the first installment of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which a Boston publisher issued in book form the following March. Fun fact: That summer, while her book was fast becoming a phenomenon at home and abroad, Stowe and her family moved to Andover, where they lived for the next 12 years. (Read more at MassMoments.org)
Birds I'm seeing
Least Tern in Belle Isle Marsh, East Boston
What's good on WERS-FM
Talkin' Bout a Revolution, by Tracy Chapman
What I'm watching
The Recruit, on Netflix
Data diving: A new way to size up Massachusetts
As business readers, I know you all love a good set of data to chew on. Well, this morning, as you munch your Wheaties, I've got a new and fascinating place for you to check out and get your fill of data. It's called US Data Labs, and it's an effort by the Boston-based think tank Pioneer Institute that allows you to compare states across more than 150 data measures.
US Data Labs takes federal data and, using data-visualization tools from Tableau, enables anyone to track trends over the past two decades, compare and then sort findings across multiple policy areas such as employment and the economy, government finance (ie., pensions, employment, pay), education, population/demographics, energy, transportation and infrastructure, crime/justice and taxation.
Take employment and wages, for example. When it comes to the percentage of employees on a per-sector basis, you can quickly see that Massachusetts is ranked third, for example, in educational services and fourth in the U.S. for healthcare and social assistance jobs. It also shows changes in employment by sector, which you can see here:
You can also line up Massachusetts against as many as 10 'peer states' in a given category using its Peer Finder tool.
Mary Connaughton, chief operating officer of Pioneer, shared some of the many ways our reporters can use these tools to research and identify stories. But it's not just for reporters and researchers — it's for anyone who wants a more transparent view of their government and the data that exists and has been collected for decades. Don't trust the government? Don't trust the media? Now you can look up Census Bureau and FBI crime statistics for yourself.
Several social indicators, from human services to environmental protection to immigration, aren't included, so if there's a data set you don't see, you can let Pioneer know. They'll be continuing to work on it, with help from Michael Walker, founding executive director of Fraser Institute and adviser to Data Labs.
As Walker said on a demonstration yesterday: 'This is a living, breathing thing.'
PARTING SHOT
Speaking of living, breathing things, here's a story about the high-stakes world of elite pigeon racing, "where birds are bred like racehorses and auctioned like fine art":
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Largest Breweries in Massachusetts
Total 2024 beer barrel production
Rank Prior Rank Brewery/Prior rank (*unranked in 2024)/
1
1
Samuel Adams/Boston Beer Co.
2
2
Barrel One Collective
3
3
Downeast Cider House LLC View this list
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This event expertise, combined with Carey's security clearances and vetting processes, positions the company for what Mirza sees as a growing demand for executive protection services in "a world that's very unstable, unsafe." Mirza believes Carey has an opportunity to better market the discretion of its professional drivers: Passengers can feel safe discussing business, for example, and celebrities don't have to worry about paparazzi getting tipped off. The broader strategy reflects Carey's attempt to expand into technology companies, healthcare, and small businesses while maintaining its base among law firms, financial services, and entertainment companies and one-off consumer rentals for weddings and other special occasions. Daunting Hurdles Questions remain about execution. The luxury ground transportation market has seen numerous attempts at technology-driven transformation. It may be hard for Carey to navigate between premium positioning and mass market accessibility. Exhibit A: Blacklane, a chauffeur service app, has built international operations using similar positioning around professional service and reliability. Last year, Berlin-based Blacklane raised $65 million (€60 million) in a series G round of funding, with a potential IPO under discussion. It's available in more than 200 cities. Mirza dismissed the comparison: "It's like the difference between Airbnb and Four Seasons," he said, implying that Carey is like the luxury hotel brand. Meanwhile, Tesla's forthcoming robotaxi launch and Waymo's increased expansion of its driverless taxis could pressure labor costs. As the lack of combustion engines frees up space, autonomous vehicles may eventually reimagine the amenities and configurations passengers expect. Mirza emphasized that innovation will come from the bottom up, involving drivers and regional managers rather than corporate consultants. Mirza offered reassurance to longtime Carey customers, including corporate travel managers and executive assistants who arrange transportation for high-profile clients. "Discretion and safety are things that we value that are not going to be compromised," he said. "But we need to bring a higher level of hospitality to it, get better at marketing, and use AI to boost efficiency.
