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Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
What's the most pressing concern for big companies this earnings season? Hint: It starts with ‘T.'
The shift is no surprise, given the stock market's violent reaction to " Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Executives on these earning calls present a stoic front: Most don't sound all that happy about the turn of events, though they don't criticize the president directly for picking trade fights with other countries. The prices on everything from aluminum cans to Dungeons & Dragons box sets could be affected. Just how much gets passed on to clients and consumers will vary greatly, from business to business and product to product. Advertisement Consider Cambridge-based energy company GE Vernova, where chief executive Scott Strazik and chief financial officer Kenneth Parks probably would have preferred fielding questions about order backlogs and Advertisement Instead, they responded to queries about how the Trump tariffs are resulting in an additional $300 million to $400 million in inflationary costs this year for the company, though the executives will continue to try to 'mitigate' the impacts (to use the buzzword of the moment). If it's any consolation to Strazik and his crew, their former colleagues at For GE Vernova, the supersized tariff that Trump is imposing on Chinese imports is the biggest headache, though the broader tariffs of 10 percent for numerous other countries aren't helping matters. But for now, at least, GE Vernova is holding firm on its overall outlook for 2025. On the same day as GE Vernova's earnings, Waltham-based lab equipment supplier Thermo Fisher Scientific warned of a '$400 million headwind' in 2025 from the China tariff, because of the effects on China-sourced parts and China's retaliatory tariffs on products that Thermo Fisher makes in America and ships to that country. Also that day, Marlborough-based Boston Scientific chief executive Michael Mahoney forecast a $200 million hit to his company from the tariffs this year. As a result, BSX is Advertisement Hasbro, meanwhile, is speeding away from China as quickly as it can, with hundreds of items currently made in China being moved to factories in other countries by the end of this year. Chief financial officer Gina Goetter said Hasbro execs hope to be making fewer than 40 percent of its products in China by 2026. Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, R.I., is moving hundreds of items currently made in China to factories in other countries by the end of this year. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff CEO Chris Cocks seemed happy to report that the Pawtucket company is still making most of its board games, such as Monopoly, at a factory in Cocks said he is accelerating a $1 billion cost savings plan as a result of the tariffs. And he had just announced he's putting off a decision about whether to move the company headquarters to Boston or stay closer to home in Providence. Meanwhile, the bad news keeps piling up. Teradyne's customers in the semiconductor sector are pulling back, preventing the North Reading-based manufacturer from offering any financial predictions beyond the current quarter. Boston Beer executives got peppered with questions about how tariffs are driving up expenses and driving down consumers' thirst for Sam Adams. And at New Britain-based tool maker Stanley Black & Decker, executives said that Not everyone seems to be worrying, though. Michael Battles at Norwell-based Clean Harbors promised that tariff concerns are 'a winner for us' in part because it could mean more reshoring of manufacturing in the US; that in turn means factories here will have more industrial waste to discard, possibly to Clean Harbors crews. And at Yankee Candle parent Newell Brands, chief executive Chris Peterson boasted that his company is well positioned to benefit from the craziness — he used the phase 'global trade alignment' ― after a 'period of temporary disruption.' That's primarily because the company had already started aggressively moving production out of China to other countries. Advertisement Citi analyst James Hardiman seemed to sum up the tumult perfectly, when he asked the Hasbro executives this simple question on their call: 'How do you even make decisions in this current environment?' Cocks replied by saying he's assuming the US will get to a 'reasonable and logical trade policy ultimately, once all the negotiations are done.' Can Hardiman and other analysts take that to the Monopoly bank? That remains to be seen. For now, these earning season comments sure make Trump's trade fights look like a roll of the dice. Jon Chesto can be reached at
Boston Globe
19-04-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Boston Marathon will offer sensory-friendly area along course for spectators with autism, other needs
Laura Amico and her son, who has autism, watch the 2024 Boston Marathon. This year, the family will be watching from a sensory-friendly area the BAA is staging for the first time. (Laura Amico) Laura Amico This year, Amico and her son will be watching the race from a Campbell said the move builds on the Boston Marathon's work over the past several decades to make the race accessible to para athletes. The Advertisement 'This year is really the chance to turn that spotlight on the spectators and make sure we're not just taking care of our participants and being inclusive there, but we want everyone coming,' Campbell said. Amico was the one to inspire the BAA to create a designated area for people with sensory difficulties; she called the association with her experience and idea after the marathon last year. Advertisement 'While I was there, I was thinking it would be much easier to stay if the speakers were just a few blocks away and people didn't have cowbells,' Amico said. 'Those seemed like two really simple adjustments that would make the day so much easier for my family.' After that, BAA connected with the Flutie Foundation, a Waltham-based organization that aims to increase quality of life for people with autism. The organization has helped create BAA and Flutie found the perfect location for the sensory-friendly zone outside of Parsons Tolles Center, a senior citizen center in Wellesley. The center is located right along the course of the marathon, and spectators will have the entire sidewalk that runs along the center's property to watch from. The day of the marathon, the parking lot in front of the center will be empty, providing additional space for people to spread out and retreat from the race if they need to. In addition, the center will provide spectators with indoor access, including accessible bathrooms. There won't be a restriction on how much noise someone inside or outside the space can make, but the expectation is that people be mindful of people around them, Campbell said. 'It's going to be an opportunity for people to spectate the event without changing what the event is,' said Ethan Michaud, director of development for the Flutie Foundation. 'It just changes how they are able to experience it and knowing that they have the space to go that allows them that flexibility.' Advertisement In addition to the indoor space, the enclosed area has a parking lot in front of the sidewalk where spectators can watch the runners, offering enough space for people to spread out and engage in other activities if they need to, Campbell said. The area will be staffed by the Flutie Foundation and Boston Marathon volunteers. Michaud said Flutie will provide fidget toys, headphones, and ear plugs to spectators while preserving the original experience of the Boston Marathon. 'It's not an activity zone, not a silent zone, just a place where it can be what it needs to be for people who are attending,' Michaud said. 'People who benefit from these types of places want the opportunity to experience the event as it's meant to be experienced.' Campbell said BAA and Flutie will collect feedback from attendees and volunteers after the marathon with the goal of improving the area and possibly expanding it to other spots along the course in the future. The organizations are also 'We believe we're one of the first mass participation outdoor events to have this kind of area, so it's really exciting for us to see how it goes,' Campbell said. Last year, Amico's family left the marathon early because of how overwhelming it was for her son, and the family missed seeing friends run the marathon. This year, Amico's family will be watching from Wellesley. 'I'm just so thrilled that BAA took the idea and ran with it,' she said. 'For me, to have the kids see people who have worked hard to be the best of the best and have an opportunity to see those people is something that I want them to be included in.' Advertisement Emily Spatz can be reached at
Boston Globe
24-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
The Globe's Top Places to Work nominations are now open for 2025
'I am challenged to be better on a daily basis.' 'I am comfortable failing and encouraged to try new things.' These are just a few of the glowing comments from employees at companies that made The Boston Globe's really love their jobs. Related : If you feel the same way, now's the time to speak up. Nominations are being accepted for the 18th annual employer rankings, a free process open to any organization with 50 or more workers in Massachusetts — public, private, nonprofit, or government. Companies are evaluated by their employees using a 25-question survey conducted by the Globe's research partner, Energage, which administers employee surveys in 65 markets. Last year, 67,950 Massachusetts employees were surveyed at 323 companies, and 175 winners made the list in four size categories. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The recognition also makes for a useful recruiting tool. Advertisement At Waltham-based Lamacchia Realty, the No. 1 large company for the last two years, there's a 'buzz' after the results are announced, from employees as well as from clients and vendors, said Kim Beaulieu, the company's vice president of human resources. 'Earning a Top Places to Work award is a distinctive mark of excellence, setting companies apart in a recognizable way,' Eric Rubino, Energage's chief executive, said in a statement. 'Companies that earn this recognition embody the highest standards, and this award, rooted in authentic employee feedback, should be a point of immense pride.' These companies also have amazing perks. A few of our favorites over the years: pajama day, complete with pancakes and eggs for lunch; a quarterly drawing for two bonus weeks of vacation; and a dunk tank where employees get to soak the executives. The deadline for company nominations is April 25. The list of winners, and stories about what sets them apart, will be published later this year. Go to Katie Johnston can be reached at
Boston Globe
26-02-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Bitcoin slides under $90,000, erasing some of the gains made under Trump
LEADERSHIP Unilever ousts chief, elevates CFO in push for faster growth Hein Schumacher. Hollie Adams/Bloomberg Unilever Plc pushed out chief executive Hein Schumacher after less than two years, signaling that the board wasn't satisfied with the pace of restructuring at the maker of Hellmann's mayonnaise and Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company said chief financial officer Fernando Fernandez will take over as CEO on March 1 and hailed his ability to 'drive change at speed,' hinting that the board wants to push Unilever's transformation even faster. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up FOOD Advertisement Restaurants warn of potential $12 billion hit from Trump tariffs A cook made scrambled eggs at Miracle Mile Cafe on Feb. 13 in San Rafael, Calif. Justin Sullivan/Getty The US trade group representing restaurants urged President Trump to spare food and drinks from tariffs, estimating the levies could cost the industry more than $12 billion and lead to higher prices for consumers. In a letter to the president, the National Restaurant Association said companies would have no choice but to raise prices if tariffs came into effect, citing the industry's already-tight profit margins of 3 percent to 5 percent on average. Trump pledged during his campaign to tame inflation. 'We urge you to exempt food and beverage products to minimize the impact on restaurant owners and consumers,' the association said in the letter viewed by Bloomberg News. 'This will help keep menu prices stable.' The group estimated the potential impact assuming 25 percent tariffs on food and beverage products from Mexico and Canada. — BLOOMBERG NEWS ACQUISITIONS Thermo Fisher inks $4 billion deal to buy former 3M filtration business Thermo Fisher Scientific is buying 3M's former filtration and purification business for $4.1 billion. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Thermo Fisher Scientific is growing its lab equipment empire with a deal to buy 3M's former purification and filtration business for $4.1 billion. Waltham-based Thermo is buying the business from Solventum, a Minn.-based company that spun off from manufacturing conglomerate 3M roughly one year ago. The business that Thermo is buying employs about 2,500 people across the globe, and it generated about $1 billion of revenue in 2024. (Thermo, in comparison, reported $43 billion in revenue for the year, and around 125,000 employees.) Thermo said the purchase broadens its product line used for the development and manufacturing of biologic medicines. Aside from the biopharmaceutical sector, the filters and membranes are used in the manufacturing of microelectronics and food products, as well as for cleaning drinking water. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Thermo expects to receive $125 million of annual operating income, based on the potential revenue and cost synergies, within five years after the deal closes. Shares in Thermo, the largest public company in Massachusetts based on market value, gained less than 1 percent on Tuesday after the deal was announced, while Solventum's shares were up by more than 9 percent. — JON CHESTO Advertisement SOCIAL MEDIA 277 million more harmful posts could flood Facebook and Instagram, study says Meta's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. JASON HENRY/NYT After Mark Zuckerberg's January turnaround on 'free expression,' what's in store for the billions of users of Facebook and Instagram? They could encounter at least 277 million more instances of hate speech and other harmful content each year, according to a new estimate from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that frequently battles social media companies over moderation practices. Last month, Meta announced sweeping changes to the community guidelines that define what sorts of speech it does and doesn't allow. The company said it would shift how it enforces many of its rules and ratchet back limits to speech targeting women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and other marginalized groups. The main driver for a potential surge in hate speech, CCDH said, is an important change to how Meta says it will identify some harmful content: relying on users to report it rather than automated systems to take it down. — WASHINGTON POST Advertisement LEGAL Farmers sue USDA after agency deletes climate change data The US Department of Agriculture building in Washington. Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press A group of farmers and environmental nonprofits sued the US Department of Agriculture, accusing the agency of scrubbing data relating to climate change from its website and saying the move would hinder research and hurt farming initiatives. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) and two environmental nonprofits, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group, accused the USDA of deleting 'climate-related policies, guides, datasets, and resources from its websites' in violation of laws on government transparency and agency action. The suit said the agency's actions hurt farmers who used the data to plan 'agricultural decisions' and access funding, made it more difficult for climate researchers and advocates to do their jobs and 'deprived the public' of 'vital information.' — WASHINGTON POST TECH Microsoft workers protest sale of AI and cloud services to Israeli military Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the Microsoft Ignite conference on Nov. 19, 2024, in Chicago. Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press Five Microsoft employees were ejected from a meeting with the company's chief executive for protesting contracts to provide artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli military. The protest on Monday came after an investigation by the Associated Press revealed last week that sophisticated AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was speaking about new products at an employee town hall meeting at the company's corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. Workers standing about 15 feet to his right then revealed T-shirts that when they stood side-by-side spelled out the question 'Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?' Photos and video of the incident, which was live streamed throughout the company, shows Nadella kept speaking and did not acknowledge the protesters. Two men quickly tapped the workers on the shoulders and ushered them out of the room. — ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement AUTOMOTIVE Tesla sales fall 45 percent in Europe amid Musk's political meddling A Tesla electric car dealership in Erfurt, Germany. Sean Gallup/Getty Tesla Inc.'s sales plunged 45 percent last month across Europe, where rival carmakers saw a surge in electric-vehicle demand. The Elon Musk-led company registered only 9,945 cars in January, down from 18,161 a year ago, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. EV sales soared 37 percent for the overall industry, with carmakers posting big gains in Germany and the UK. Tesla shares fell 8.4 percent Tuesday in New York, sending the company's market value back below $1 trillion. The stock has tumbled 25 percent this year. Tesla is changing over production lines for by far its most popular vehicle, the Model Y SUV, and contending with its chief executive becoming an increasingly polarizing figure in global politics. After emerging as a leading donor to Donald Trump during last year's US election cycle, Musk set his sights on Europe, backing far-right parties and attacking incumbents. — BLOOMBERG NEWS HEALTH COVID-like bat virus discovered by researchers in Chinese lab An infectious diseases research team caught bats for a study outside the Khao Chong Phran Cave in Ratchaburi, Thailand, in 2020. ADAM DEAN/NYT Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China said they discovered a new coronavirus in bats that enters cells using the same gateway as the virus that causes COVID-19. This virus hasn't been detected in humans, merely identified in a laboratory. Word of the discovery lifted the shares of some vaccine makers Friday. Moderna Inc. rose as much as 6.6 percent Friday afternoon and Novavax Inc. rose as much as 7.8 percent. American depositary receipts of BioNTech SE, Pfizer Inc.'s COVID vaccine partner, climbed as much as 5.1 percent. Pfizer gained as much as 2.6 percent. The lab finding does raise the possibility that this new bat virus could spread from animals to humans, researchers said in a paper published Tuesday in the journal Cell. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Advertisement
Boston Globe
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
More than a century after her death, Isabella Stewart Gardner still fascinates
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Commissioning a piece about Gardner herself instead of the collection wasn't a problem for Steel, who said in a phone interview that he 'likes to do as little 'putting composers in a box' as possible.' This Sunday at the museum's Calderwood Hall, percussion and piano quartet Yarn/Wire and soprano Nicoletta Berry will present the world premiere of 'ghost story,' a song cycle inspired by the life and legacy that Gardner cultivated. Advertisement 'There's a way in which she was very much of her time, but there are aspects of her story that feel very current now,' said Waltham-based historian Natalie Dykstra, author of the 2024 Gardner biography 'Chasing Beauty.' 'The gorgeousness of her story, I think, is her capacity to stay open to life, and interested, and curious, even when there was much that discouraged her.' 'I was just drawn into her world,' said Kline, who said he read 'Chasing Beauty' and other Gardner biographies as background for the piece. The composer's most famous creation is 'Unsilent Night,' a starkly beautiful and entirely wordless processional for an ensemble of boomboxes; Advertisement 'Isabella is very famous, but also mysterious, and she did a lot to sort of cover her tracks in a lot of ways,' said Kline. However, he noticed that in her surviving correspondence with art historian Bernard Berenson dating from later in her life, Gardner began to express her personal feelings more. 'Even in her 60s and 70s, she's very playful,' he said. 'The one that floored me was when she said, 'I would mortgage my eyes to see you.' And I was like, wow, the lady can write lyrics.' Composer-lyricist Phil Kline. Lovis Ostenrik Born into a wealthy New York City merchant family in 1840, Gardner was expected to settle into the life of an upper-class Boston matron after her marriage to John Lowell ('Jack') Gardner Jr. at the age of 20 — childrearing, making social calls, attending sewing circles with women in a similar income bracket. According to 'Chasing Beauty,' Gardner had trouble fitting in with Boston society, for reasons that have never been entirely defined. In 1863, the couple's only child, 2-year-old Jackie, died from pneumonia, and a doctor had ordered that she bear no more children. This only isolated her further, and she was in fragile condition when that same doctor 'endorsed a cure commonly prescribed to upper-crust Americans: a trip to Europe,' Dykstra wrote in 'Chasing Beauty.' Advertisement That voyage would be the first of many she'd make throughout her life to far-flung locales, in which she'd absorb as much fine art, music, and architecture as possible, and nourish a social circle of mostly male intellectuals and artists including Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, and Henry James. Her husband died in 1898, but she carried on their plan to buy the plot of land upon which was built the mansion that became the museum. 'As she got older, she continued to make new friends; continued to assemble a kind of family of choice,' Dykstra said. 'It feels like there's much we can learn from her.' Gardner herself isn't the only ghost present in 'ghost story,' however. Into the song cycle, Kline also incorporated his own adaptation of the museum's blurb about Govaert Flinck's 'Landscape with Obelisk,' which was stolen from the Dutch Room in the infamous 'Cut up the poem, you know, remove some things, and it becomes about the children that aren't there,' said Kline. 'That was probably the definitive moment of her life, in a way; recovering from the loss.' Because not much of Gardner's personal correspondence survives, Steel said, 'we have to assemble what we think about her from the museum and other things she left behind.' In including Owen's 'The Kind Ghosts,' Kline wanted to touch on the double-edged nature of Gardner's collecting without necessarily passing judgment. 'She and Bernard Berenson spent a lot of time, one could cynically say, looting Europe for its masterpieces, and bringing them back and putting them in her house,' he said. 'She did something that you could be cynical about, but at the same time it's also sort of magical.' Advertisement Gardner's loneliness seemingly went hand in hand with a knack for attention-getting stunts, which included taking zoo lion cubs for a ride in her carriage and showing up to a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert after the Red Sox's 1912 World Series win while sporting a headband emblazoned with 'OH, YOU RED SOX'. This last one is also represented in 'ghost story,' through an excerpt from gossip magazine ' Dykstra sees Gardner's public legacy as a representation of 'enormous self-discipline,' she said. 'She could have so easily said, 'This is what I intended in the Titian room,' but she didn't want to get in the way of her visitors' experiences,' she said. 'I think people re-engage with the museum in fresh and new ways, because she never locked down what it meant.' YARN/WIRE Calderwood Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Feb. 23, 1 p.m. 617-566-1401, A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
