RETAIL
Wu’s former campaign manager to lead Boston Public Market
The Boston Public Market Association announced on Tuesday that it has tapped Julia Leja, Mayor Michelle Wu’s former campaign manager, to be its next chief executive. Leja will start on March 2, taking over for Cheryl Cronin, who is retiring at the end of this month after a decade leading the nonprofit. Leja served as Wu’s campaign manager during her recent successful campaign for reelection; Leja’s previous experience includes fundraising and campaign work with Boston College, Hillary Clinton, Deval Patrick, Raise Up Massachusetts, Ed Markey, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party. The association runs the Boston Public Market, an assemblage of 31 stalls highlighting foods and other products with Massachusetts ties, on the ground floor of the Haymarket Garage between Congress and Blackstone streets. The nonprofit employs six people full-time and one part-timer, while around 200 people work for the various vendors. Rents make up about half of the association’s $2.5 million annual budget, with state funds and philanthropy covering most of the rest. — JON CHESTO
TECH
Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of investigation into child abuse images and deepfakes
French prosecutors raided the offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations including spreading child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. They have also summoned billionaire owner Elon Musk for questioning. X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI also face intensifying scrutiny from Britain’s data privacy regulator, which opened formal investigations into how they handled personal data when they developed and deployed Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok. Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage last month after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users. The French investigation was opened in January last year by the prosecutors’ cybercrime unit, the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a statement. It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges. Prosecutors asked Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to attend “voluntary interviews” on April 20. Employees of X have also been summoned that same week to be heard as witnesses, the statement said. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025. A spokesperson for X did not respond to multiple requests for comment. X’s lawyer in France, Kami Haeri, told The Associated Press: ″We are not making any comment at this stage." — ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANKING
Santander agrees to buy US-based Webster for $12.2 billion
Banco Santander SA agreed to acquire Webster Financial Corp. for $12 billion in one of the largest-ever US deals by a European lender. The Spanish bank will pay a total consideration of $75 a share in cash and stock for Webster, according to a statement Tuesday that confirmed a Bloomberg News report. Shares in Webster had risen around 11 percent in New York trading over the last 12 months before trading was halted Tuesday, giving the company a market value of about $10.6 billion. The acquisition highlights Santander Executive Chair Ana Botin’s growing appetite for mergers and acquisitions. Botin, who has been in her role for more than 11 years, has long focused on building up Santander’s capital buffers while shying away from large transactions. But the lender’s share price more than doubled last year, making it easier for her to do deals. In addition, the recent $8.3 billion sale of a 49% stake in its Polish unit to Austria’s Erste Group Bank AG means Santander has money to spend. With the deal, Santander’s getting a major presence in the US Northeast, given Webster’s footprint in New York City, Massachusetts and Connecticut, where it’s based. The bank has almost 200 branches and more than $80 billion in assets, according to a fourth-quarter company overview. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
C-SUITE
Disney names Josh D’Amaro as next CEO
Josh D’Amaro, a 28-year Disney veteran with vast theme park experience but little expertise in movies and television, will succeed Bob Iger as Disney’s CEO, ending a nearly three-year search, the company said Tuesday. Disney’s board voted unanimously to give D’Amaro the job. He will assume power on March 18, when Disney is scheduled to hold its annual shareholder meeting. He will also join the company’s board. After D’Amaro, 54, takes control of the company, Iger, 74, will serve as a senior adviser and board member until his retirement on Dec. 31, when his contract expires. At that point, he will leave Disney entirely, the company said. D’Amaro most recently served as chair of Disney Experiences, a division with $36 billion in annual revenue that includes theme parks, a fast-growing cruise line, and consumer products, including video games. D’Amaro’s unit made up roughly 60% of Disney’s profit last year: Disney, in some ways, has become more of a travel company than a media one. On Monday, Disney said quarterly operating profit in D’Amaro’s division totaled $3.31 billion, a 6% increase from a year earlier. The rest of the company (movies, television, sports) had $1.29 billion in operating profit, a 34% decline. — NEW YORK TIMES
SMALL BUSINESS
SBA says legal permanent residents will be ineligible for its loan program, effective March 1
The Small Business Administration said in a policy note that green card holders won’t be allowed to apply for SBA loans, effective March 1. The move is the latest by the SBA as it works to tighten loan restrictions and restructure the agency. Last year, it tightened a requirement that businesses applying for loans must be 100 percent owned by US citizens, US nationals, or lawful permanent residents, up from a 51 percent standard. In December, it issued a policy note that said up to 5 percent of a business could be non-citizen owned. But the current policy rescinds that, as well as making lawful permanent residents ineligible, too. “The Trump SBA is committed to driving economic growth and job creation for American citizens – which is why, effective March 1, the agency will no longer guarantee loans for small businesses owned by foreign nationals," said SBA spokesperson Maggie Clemmons in an emailed statement. “Across every program, the SBA is ensuring that every taxpayer dollar entrusted to this agency goes to support U.S. job creators and innovators.” The SBA doesn’t give out direct loans, except when they’re related to disasters, but it works with lenders to distribute loans to small businesses. The loans typically have better rates than traditional loans. Small business advocacy group the Small Business Majority said the move is “a decision that will limit the growth of small businesses and jobs throughout the United States.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS
HEALTH CARE
Auchincloss raises new concerns over FDA’s ultra-fast drug review program
A Democratic lawmaker is raising new concerns about a Food and Drug Administration program designed to drastically shorten the review of certain drugs, including whether senior officials involved in the effort are complying with federal ethics rules. In a letter sent Tuesday, Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts took issue with the agency’s handling of the program and questioned its legal underpinnings, noting that Congress did not sign off on the plan. Under the voucher program, drugmakers are promised expedited reviews of one to two months for new medicines that support “national interests.” It’s at the center of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s stated goal of “cutting red tape” and “challenging assumptions” at the agency. But the effort has become a flashpoint for controversy outside and inside the agency, with several senior staffers declining to sign off on drug approvals going through the program, as previously reported by the AP. “The public must have transparency about the ‘voucher’ program, under which drug approvals have been made almost wholly and in an unprecedented manner by the FDA’s political leadership,” states Auchincloss, who is a member of a House subcommittee on health. Auchincloss asserts that the FDA has failed to publish or disclose financial disclosure forms for eight senior FDA officials who vote on which drugs should receive priority vouchers. Membership of group, which was first reported by Stat News, is mostly comprised of officials closely aligned with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including Deputy FDA Commissioner Dr. Sara Brenner, Dr. Vinay Prasad, who oversees vaccines, and Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, FDA’s drug center director. Such disclosures are considered critical to avoiding potential conflicts of interest at the FDA, where staffers are often involved in regulating multibillion-dollar, publicly traded companies. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to AP’s questions about the letter. — ASSOCIATED PRESS