Weekly Recap of Business News

PARTY STORE CHAIN BUYS TWO MORE SHOPS

Dedham-based iParty can celebrate its latest victory, buying out the last shops of rival Party City in New England, except in western and central Connecticut. Party City last year agreed to cede most of the New England market to iParty, but two Party City franchises, in Lincoln, R.I., and Warwick, R.I., still operated independently. IParty just inked a deal to buy both of them and convert them to iParty stores in January.

EMC SUBSIDIARY'S IPO A ROUSING SUCCESS

This past week's stock market volatility probably didn't faze the executives at EMC Corp. in Hopkinton. That's because they watched the shares of one of the tech company's subsidiaries, VMWare, jump by 76 percent in their first day on the public market. EMC chose to sell off a minority share in VMWare through an IPO, making the virtualization software firm's IPO the hottest initial public offering so far this year.

LEGISLATORS DON'T LIKE INSURANCE RATE PLAN

State Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes' proposal to revamp the state's auto insurance system crashed and burned during a State House hearing. Burnes wants to allow auto insurers to set their own insurance rates and run them by the state's insurance regulators. Currently, state regulators establish a uniform set of rates for insurers each year. Burnes hopes to inject more competition into the market, but several state senators slammed the idea, saying it could drive up costs for good drivers who happen to be poor or live in urban areas. Fortunately for Burnes, she doesn't need the Legislature's approval to move forward with the changes.

BOSTON SCIENTIFIC PUTS 2 UNITS ON BLOCK

Boston Scientific Corp. has put two more of its divisions on the block as it attempts to raise money to pay off the enormous debt it took on with its $27 billion acquisition of Guidant last year. The Natick-based medical device maker plans to sell off its San Jose, Calif.-based cardiac surgery unit and its Wayne, N.J.-based vascular surgery unit. The two divisions together employ about 700 people.

MASS. EMPLOYERS ADD 4,200 MORE JOBS

The state's employers added another 4,200 jobs last month, with the health care sector again taking a leading role in the recovery. The state has now moved past the halfway mark on the route to recovering the 200,000 jobs that it lost during the 2001-2003 downturn.

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