Framingham

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Framingham-based retailer Staples has debuted eight new product categories in its Dallas-area retail outlets, with a projected rollout to more than 1,000 stores across the U.S. and hundreds more in Canada.

Chicago-based Fitch Ratings has downgraded its assessment of Framingham-based Staples due to a reported decline of core office supply sales and weak business technology product sales.

First-quarter revenue fell 9 percent at Framingham-based Ameresco, the company said Thursday.

Office supplies retailer Staples of Framingham said it will buy a Canadian digital media firm that helps retailers. The purchase price for PNI Digital Media of Vancouver, British Columbia is estimated at about $67.2 million.

Mobile applications testing provider uTest has officially changed its name, and announced it will acquire a German firm that will serve as European headquarters for the company now known as Applause. In a statement today, the renamed company said Applause is expanding its mission beyond “in the wild,” or “real world” testing for web, desktop and mobile applications to include mobile analytics, an application-quality “dashboard” and a free tool that enables crash-and-bug reporting, as well as user feedback on IOS, Android and Windows Phone applications. “Web, mobile and wearable applications – and the quality of these digital experiences – are the gateway to brands and businesses. This new ideal of 360-degree app quality is the best way for companies to differentiate themselves, and win in the highly competitive apps economy,” CEO Doron Reuveni said in a statement.

Fueled by sales of it its Ventricular Assist Systems, Framingham-based HeartWare International on Thursday announced a 35-percent jump in revenue for the first quarter, from $49.2 million in the first quarter of 2013 to $66.5 million.

The MetroWest region appears to have dusted itself off and rebounded from the recession, Donald MacRitchie, an economics professor at Framingham State University, told a crowd of about 100 at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel on Wednesday morning.

Framingham-based HeartWare International reissued a warning Thursday regarding serious issues with its Ventricular Assist System, which aids people with advanced stage heart failure. The company said it has received eight complaints of failed locking mechanisms in the patient driveline connection, which connect the device to an external controller used to power and monitor the device.

Officials at Framingham State University will celebrate the opening of the school's new Entrepreneur Innovation Center with a ceremony on site this afternoon. The incubator provides office space for area entrepreneurs, as well as internship opportunities for FSU students. It opened in January in FSU's Maynard Building on Framingham's Vernon Street, becoming the second incubating space to open in MetroWest in the last year. TechSandBox, a technology incubator in Hopkinton, launched in May 2013.