Baker names hotel executive to Massport board

GOVERNMENT

Baker names hotel executive to Massport board

Governor Charlie Baker has appointed a top executive at the Pyramid Hotel Group to the Massachusetts Port Authority board of directors. Warren Fields, the chief investment officer at the Boston-based hotel management company, takes over for Duane Jackson, a Deval Patrick appointee whose seven-year term has ended. Sean O’Brien will be the last remaining Patrick appointee on the seven-member board. The board oversees Massport and its operations, which include Logan International Airport, Hanscom Field, and Worcester Regional Airport as well as ship terminals and real estate holdings in Boston. — JON CHESTO

TECHNOLOGY

Quick Base changes hands

Quick Base, a Cambridge company that helps people build workplace applications with limited computer programming knowledge, is changing hands in a deal reportedly valued at more than $1 billion. The private firm Vista Equity Partners bought a majority stake in the company, which had been owned by another private equity firm, Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe. The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the transaction, said it was worth more than $1 billion. Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe will retain a “significant” minority position in the firm, Quick Base announced in a news release. This is the second major deal involving Quick Base in just a few years. The company was long an arm of Intuit, the maker of TurboTax and other consumer software products, but that company sold Quick Base in 2016 to Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe. Quick Base has about 325 employees, and it says its products are being used by 5,400 clients. The company said chief executive Rick Willett will remain at the helm of the company. — ANDY ROSEN

RETAIL

Shaw’s to close four supermarkets in region

Shaw’s says it will close four “underperforming” supermarkets next month, three of them in Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire. In a statement, Shaw’s and Star Market — the chains have the same parent company — said they are “focused on growing our business by being the favorite local supermarket, and running great stores where people love to shop.” The grocery stores scheduled to go dark include those in Plymouth, Lynn, Leominster, and Portsmouth, N.H. “While the decision to close a store is always difficult — given the impact on employees and customers — it was made only after careful evaluation,” the company said. Shaw’s has more than 150 store locations throughout the six New England states, the company said, and employs about 19,000 people. It was not immediately clear how many people work at the four locations that are closing. Shaw’s and Star Market stores are owned by Albertsons Cos., one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States. Albertsons also owns Jewel Osco, Acme, Pavilions, Safeway, and Vons, among other supermarket chains. — JACLYN REISS

GOVERNMENT

Ivanka Trump shepherding nomination for new World Bank leader

Ivanka Trump is helping manage the US nomination of a new leader of the World Bank, the White House said Monday. President Trump’s daughter and adviser will work with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to nominate a successor to outgoing World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said in a statement. The World Bank board traditionally accepts the US nominee for the position. Ivanka Trump isn’t under consideration for the job, Ditto said, calling reports that she’s a contender false. She has been involved in World Bank initiatives on women’s economic development and has worked with the bank’s leadership over the past two years, which is why she’s working on the nomination, Ditto said. Kim last week announced his early departure from the role and plans to step down as of Feb. 1. The board aims to select a new president before spring meetings in April and has set a March 14 deadline for nominations. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

MEDICAL DEVICES

Regulators OK device to fix holes in hearts of premature babies

A pea-size device used to seal tiny but potentially deadly holes in the hearts of premature infants has been approved by US regulators, making it one of the smallest complex medical devices ever invented and cleared for sale. Abbott Laboratories’ Amplatzer Piccolo Occluder is one of the first treatments to become available for a common congenital defect that can become dangerous for premature infants. The device can be used in babies weighing as little as two pounds in cases where a hole in the heart used to deliver oxygen-rich blood in the womb doesn’t close after birth. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

AUTOMOTIVE

Hyundai vehicles win at Detroit car show

Hyundai scored two out of three wins on Monday in the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards, as the Detroit auto show’s press previews officially got underway. The Hyundai Genesis G70 and Hyundai Kona took the car and utility awards, respectively, surprising officials with the South Korean automaker. The Genesis competed against the Honda Insight and Volvo S60/V60, and the Kona bested the Acura RDX and Jaguar I-Pace. Truck honors went to the Ram 1500, which beat out two General Motors trucks — the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra — to win in a highly competitive and lucrative market for US automakers. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

NONPROFITS

National Law Enforcement Museum misses loan payment amid attendance problems

Not enough Americans are interested in what it’s like to be a police officer to keep the National Law Enforcement Museum afloat. The museum defaulted on a Jan. 1 payment due on some of the $103 million of bonds that financed its Washington, D.C., facilities near the Smithsonian, just months after it opened in October. It attributed the lapse to a failure to reach its fund-raising goals and lower-than-anticipated revenue, according to a transcript of a conference call held with bondholders on Jan. 10. The payment shortfall makes the museum — which bills itself as a place where people can “walk in the shoes” of law enforcement officers — one of the rare borrowers in the $3.8 trillion municipal-bond market to default on its debts. It joins other museums that have struggled financially, including one in Nebraska devoted to the pioneers and the American Folk Art Museum in New York. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which borrowed the money for the museum in 2016, slashed its attendance forecasts to just 300,000 visitors in the first year from the 420,000 initially expected, according to the call transcript. It also cut its staff by 12 percent and raised ticket prices for adult visitors by $1 to $21.95. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

GOVERNMENT

SEC probing Boeing’s ties to company allegedly controlled by China

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into Boeing’s relationship with a California satellite-communications startup that allegedly is controlled by the Chinese government. Global IP’s founders are suing a group of Chinese companies and individuals for allegedly taking control of their company through fraud. A December letter from the SEC requesting that El Segundo-based Global IP preserve documents and data relevant to the agency’s investigation was filed in the Los Angeles court case this month. A Boeing spokesman couldn’t be reached immediately for comment after regular business hours. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security has revoked Boeing’s export license for the satellite and Boeing has canceled its contract to build it, according to the court filing. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the project, which includes restricted technology, was funded with $200 million in Chinese government money, prompting Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, to ask the Treasury and Commerce departments to review the transaction. The satellite was intended to provide high-speed Internet access to parts of Africa. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

E-COMMERCE

Men more likely than women to check prices online before buying

Throw out the stereotypes: Women shoppers aren’t the only ones who want a good deal. Male customers in the United States are now more likely than women to check prices on Amazon.com before deciding if they’re going to make a purchase, according to a study from First Insight Inc. More than two-thirds of male respondents said they do price comparisons on the online retailer before pulling out their wallets, up 15 percentage points from the prior year’s survey. First Insight, a company that helps retailers choose the right price for their products, also found men outpace women in terms of shopping frequency, both in store and online. — BLOOMBERG NEWS