I’m off for the weekend (for the first time in a year or so—did we mention we finally closed our financing?), but there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in the local tech scene for those of you who’d still like to think about it over the next couple of days.
—The $791 million acquisition of Boston-based lighting firm Color Kinetics (NASDAQ: CLRK) by Philips moved closer to completion, as the firms gained U.S. and German antitrust approval. Stockholders will vote on the merger agreement on August 22; if it’s approved, the deals should close on the 24th.
—Shares of Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) fell to a 5-year low on Friday, after the company announced that it’s putting its cardiac and vascular surgery businesses on the block, the latest in a series of similar announcements from the firm. The move is aimed at speeding recovery by better focusing the company on its core business.
—As part of a major restructuring effort announced this week, Thousand Oaks, CA-based Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) will close a Rhode Island manufacturing plant and cut jobs at its Kendall Square facility, which employs 200 people. The company has not given a firm target for the number of positions to be eliminated at the facility.
—nTag Interactive, a Boston company whose interactive electronic name badges are designed for ice-breaking and more effective networking at business conferences, landed $8.3 million in Series B funding from Sevin Rosen and Pilot House Ventures, both of which also participated in the company’s A round. Evidently, networking does pay off.
—Rive Technology enhanced its original $5.22 million in Series A funding from Charles River Ventures with an additional $3.15 million from Advanced Technology Ventures. Rive’s improved zeolite catalysts allow petroleum refineries to operate more efficiently; PE Hub has a writeup.
—Following the approval two weeks ago of a once-daily version of Sanctura, its overactive-bladder drug, Lexington, MA-based Indevus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IDEV) received a $49.9 million milestone payment from partner firm Esprit Pharma.
—Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: BIIB) struck a deal worth up to $30 million with Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics (NASDAQ and MTAX: CTIC); the agreement gives the Seattle firm U.S. marketing, sales, and development rights to the lymphoma treatment Zevalin.
