COLUMN: BUSINESS BRIEFS

TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Bloomberg Index

Central Massachusetts

-2.13

189.51

Volume: 56,894,241

Up: 4

Down: 20

Unchanged: 5

Gainer: CNB Financial Corp. $8.45 +$.90

(volume

Decliner: American Superconductor Corp. $20.62 -$1.83

(volume of 681,980 shares)

People

Dudley speaker

DUDLEY - Keith T. Anderson, vice chairman and chief investment officer for fixed income at BlackRock Inc., will speak at 7 p.m. Monday on the campus of Nichols College at Davis Hall. BlackRock is a $1.3 trillion investment management firm. Mr. Anderson is a 1981 graduate of Nichols and received a master's degree in business administration from Rice University. Prior to joining BlackRock in 1988, he was a vice president in fixed income research at The First Boston Corp.

Local

Commerce bonus

WEBSTER - Commerce Group Inc. said yesterday employees will be eligible for cash bonuses and lump sum payments as a result of the insurer's pending acquisition by Mapfre SA. The Spanish insurer last month said it would purchase Commerce for $2.2 billion. Commerce, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said eligible employees will each receive a lump sum payment equal to 10 percent of their 2007 compensation. The lump sum payment will occur within 30 days after the merger. Commerce will also make cash bonus payments equal to a week's pay that will be paid in April and October 2008. Commerce, which has 2,200 employees, said employees will also receive an additional week's pay six months and 12 months after the merger is completed.

Jobless rate

BOSTON - The jobless rate in the Worcester metropolitan area fell to 4.1 percent in October, down from 4.7 percent at the same time last year, the state Office of Labor and Workforce Development has reported. The Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner metropolitan area recorded a jobless rate of 4.8 percent in October, down from 5.9 percent a year earlier. The jobless rate of 5 percent in the Athol area compared to 5.4 percent a year ago.

GTC program

FRAMINGHAM - GTC Biotherapeutics Inc., which has operations in Charlton, said Geoffrey Cox, chairman and chief executive officer, will make a presentation at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Lazard Capital Markets health care conference in New York. The presentation will be webcast live at www.gtc-bio.com.

Fidelity moves

SHREWSBURY - Fidelity Investments said it has relocated an investor center to 551 Boston Turnpike (Route 9). The 7,000-square-foot office replaces an office formerly located at 416 Belmont St., Worcester. The branch manager is Susan Lamb.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Mr. Anderson