Business Headlines: Spring Training Ticket Sales; Merck Settles Suit
BOSTON (CBS) - The way the 2011 season ended left a sour taste in the mouths of Red Sox fans.
But they appear willing to forgive because they have already set a record for ticket sales for spring training.
The reason?
The brand new JetBlue Park at Fenway South, which will open for this year's spring training in Ft. Myers, Florida.
It's a state of the art facility with the same dimensions and Green Monster as Fenway.
The Red Sox sold nearly 35,000 tickets last weekend alone and plenty are still available.
MERCK SETTLEMENT
Pharmaceutical giant Merck will pay Massachusetts $24-million.
This is to settle a lawsuit that accused a former Merck subsidiary of causing the state's Medicaid program to overpay for a popular asthma drug.
Attorney General Martha Coakley says this is part of a larger suit that enables the state to recover $47-million for Medicaid.
TALBOTS REJECTION
Hingham-based Talbots has rejected an unsolicited takeover bid by Sycamore partners.
They call the bid inadequate and say it substantially undervalues the company.
The Talbots board is looking at other ways to get shareholders their full value and will continue its own search for a new CEO.
Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal can be seen weekdays at 6 a.m. on WBZ-TV.