MetroWest

Bob's Discount Furniture, which has nearly 50 retail stores throughout the Northeast, including three in Central Massachusetts, is being sold to Bain Capital, the retailer announced today.

Defense contractor Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems division, which has operations in Marlborough, has won a $134.4 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to develop a terminal that transmits emergency messages to aircrews during nuclear and non-nuclear missions, the company announced.

Several communities across the state, including Sudbury and Ashland, have raised the age for tobacco sales to higher than 18 years old within the past year, evidence of a slow-spreading movement that activists say will reduce cigarette use among teens.

Framingham-based Global Technology Systems announced that its batteries and mobile device chargers will no longer have the Honeywell brand name.

The security division of Hopkinton-based EMC has refuted allegations that it allowed the National Security Agency to spy on users of its product.

Two former assistant managers of Marshalls stores have filed suit against TJX Cos. alleging that the Framingham-based retail giant violated federal and state wage and hour laws.

Federal regulators fined Harvard Medical School $24,036 last week for repeated animal welfare violations at its New England Primate Research Center in Southborough.

Cambridge-based Genzyme has agreed to pay $22.28 million to resolve allegations brought by former employees that the biotechnology giant marketed an inappropriate use for a surgery medication, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

RXi Pharmaceuticals of Westborough has signed a five-year lease for 7,581 square feet of office and laboratory space in Marlborough, according to a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The office vacancy rate for MetroWest climbed from 17 to 20.1 percent over 2013 due to EMC recently vacating a 382,000-square-foot facility in Westborough, according to Boston-based Transwestern RBJ.