Hopkinton

As residential development booms in Hopkinton, a more business-friendly attitude among town officials is aiming to broaden the business base to help balance population growth.

Precision Digital of Holliston has acquired a building in nearby Hopkinton for $5.35 million

Webster First Federal Credit Union (WFFCU), which is based in Worcester, is merging with Boston-based Industrial Credit Union (ICU), the two institutions announced.

EMC is profitable and it's growing, making a $2.7 billion profit on sales of $24.4 billion in 2014. But, to some investors and analysts, the data-storage leader needs a bit of a push to compete with the rest of the fast-growing tech world.

Data-storage giant EMC Corp. reported Thursday that it had closed the fourth quarter with a 12 percent increase in net income, but missed the mark on revenue expectations.

Wind River Environmental, a group of septic services companies based in Hudson, has bought a similar company in Pennsylvania that will boost business about 30 percent, Wind River's co-founder and top executive said Friday.

Last week, MetroWest's only technology accelerator and incubator, TechSandBox, announced its largest sponsorship to date, after its debut a year-and-a-half ago. Landlord Harold Nahigian of Southfield Properties III has agreed to let TechSandBox operate rent- and tax-free in its 8,700-square-foot space on South Street for the coming year. This came as TechSandBox was scheduled to begin paying market-rate rent to Nahigian, CEO Barb Finer said.

Massachusetts-based medical device manufacturer PerkinElmer has agreed to acquire a Swedish firm that makes instruments to measure the quality of food, grain and flour.

Several major companies with operations in Central Massachusetts received the highest scores on equality from a national advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans.

The praises of continued growth in the clean energy sector could be heard from across the state...