IntegraMed America Inc., the Purchase-based company that runs vein clinics and fertility centers, said Dan P. Doman has been promoted to president of the Vein Clinics of America division. The move became effective Thursday, the company said this morning. He replaced Kush Agarwal, who retired but remains a board member. Doman was chief financial officer of Vein Clinics of America since April 2006.

Hudson Technologies Inc., the Pearl River company that decontaminates large refrigeration equipment, said Kevin Zugibe, the chairman and chief executive, has adopted a plan to sell some of his Hudson shares.

The plan allows Zugibe to sell up to $1 million shares over a one-year period.

Zugibe said he plans to use some of the money he gets from the sales to pay off personal debt he ran up last year when he and other executives bought more than 9 million shares. Those purchases allowed the company to buy back and retire 6.9 million shares, resulting in a 26 percent reduction in shares outstanding, he said.

Hudson shares were trading at $2.41, up 48 cents, in early trading this morning.

Two businesses in the Lower Hudson Valley have placed the low bids on construction work at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, the state Office of General Services said. Southeast Plumbing Corp. of Brewster was the apparent low bidder, out of seven companies, with a bid of $262,000 to replace a domestic water system in Building No. 6. S & O Construction Services Inc. of Pleasant Valley was the apparent low bidder, out of four companies, with a bid of $410,830 for a heating and ventilation contract to rehabilitate a condensate return system.

SmartWatt Energy Services, a Clifton Park, N.Y.-based company that helps businesses reduce their energy consumption and expenses, has opened its third office on Mamaroneck Avenue in Harrison. Pete DeMartis of Somers is the general manager. The company has a third office in Rochester, N.Y. For more information on the company, visit www.smartwattinc.com.

MVC Capital Inc., a Purchase-based company that makes private debt and equity investments, has gotten a $50 million, two-year revolving line of credit from Branch Banking and Trust Co. The line is in addition to MVC’s existing $100 million credit agreement with Guggenheim Corporate Funding LLC.

MVC said the $50 million line will be used to gain better financial flexibility in managing its investment portfolio.

IBM Corp.’s success selling computers, software and services to businesses despite the slowing economy will likely be the centerpiece message tomorrow as the computer giant’s leadership faces investors in Charlotte, N.C.

In one of his rare public appearances, IBM’s chairman, president and chief executive, Samuel J. Palmisano, will give his yearly update on the health of the company he joined as a salesman in 1973.

He has plenty of good news to deliver. In 2007, IBM’s revenue rose 8.1 percent to $98.78 billion. Net income rose 9.7 percent to $10.42 billion. Earnings per share were up 17.5 percent to $7.18.

The strong results continued this year when IBM’s first-quarter profit rose 26 percent to $2.32 billion and revenue was up 11.2 percent to $24.5 billion.

“We feel good about the rest of the year,” Palmisano said earlier this month.

IBM, the largest private employer in Westchester County, provides about 7,500 local jobs.

As the world’s largest technology company, IBM is considered a bellwether not only for the computer business but for the U.S. economy in general.

Palmisano has frequently discussed IBM’s success transforming Big Blue into a globally integrated business with employees around the world cooperating to grow sales.

In a spring report to analysts, Palmisano noted that 65 percent of IBM’s workers are employed outside the United States with about 30 percent of those workers in Asia. The work force in Brazil, Russia, India and China has doubled the last two years.

The growth of work in other countries has drawn criticism from activist groups that rally for U.S. workers, including members of the Alliance@IBM, a branch of the Communications Workers of America Local 1701 that has been seeking to unionize IBMers for several years.

The group plans an informational picket for 8:30 a.m. today and will hold a rally at the close of the meeting.

In addition to offshoring, the Alliance@IBM will focus its protest on executive compensation and the lack of a cost-of-living increase for retirees, among other issues.

For more information about the annual meeting and to read IBM’s annual report and proxy filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, visit www.ibm.com/investor.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. said that a new Four Points by Sheraton has opened in Tempe, Ariz. Four Points by Sheraton is one of the White Plains hotel giant’s brands, which also include St. Regis, Westin, W and Le Meridien. The new hotel, which is owned and operated by Twenty4Seven Hotels Corp. has 187 rooms and is walking distance from Arizona State University’s main campus.

IntegraMed America Inc. of Purchase said this morning it has a 25-year agreement to provide its fertility services to Southeastern Fertility Center in Mount Pleasant, S.C. near Charleston.

Under the contract, IntegraMed has purchased the assets of Southeastern Fertility and promised to commit other resources to grow the business. IntegraMed, which runs fertility centers and vein clinics in the United States, will receive fees based on the business at the South Carolina center.

The deal was effective last Thursday.

The lawyer representing the former portfolio manager of Gabelli Global Growth Fund said his client “never violated any rule or regulation and always managed the mutual funds under his direction lawfully and in the best interests of shareholders.”

Lewis J. Liman, the lawyer, said Marc Gabelli will “respond forcefully in court” to a government lawsuit alleging Gabelli allowed a hedge fund to make so-called “market timing” trades of his mutual fund’s shares.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday sued Gabelli, the son of famed stockpicker Mario J. Gabelli, for allegedly having a market-timing arrangement with Folkes Asset Management, which is now called Headstart Advisers Ltd.

Market timing means rapid buying and selling of mutual fund shares to take advantage in inefficiencies in the way the shares are priced. Then-state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in 2003 uncovered numerous instances of mutual fund companies allowing such trading and launched a crackdown on the practice.

“We are not prepared to agree to a public statement that Mr. Gabelli did anything wrong,” Liman said. “He did not.”

Gabelli Funds, which is the adviser to Gabelli Global Growth Fund and a subsidiary of Rye-based Gamco Investors Inc., agreed to pay $16 million to settle separate charges related to the incident, which allegedly took place from 1999 to 2002.

Gamco, the company Mario Gabelli founded and runs, said in a regulatory filing that Gabelli Funds did not admit or deny any allegations.

Shares of Eastview-based Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. shot up again this morning after the company and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an application to market a drug for constipation in patients taking certain pain medications.

The shares were trading at $13.89, up $3.25, or 30.55 percent, at 9:51 a.m.

The companies announced the approval of Relistor last night. Earlier in the day, they announced that regulators in Europe had offered a positive opinion of the drug.

The shares rose 32.5 percent yesterday on news news of the favorable opinion in Europe.

“The approval of Relistor is a transformative event for Progenics Pharmaceuticals,” Dr. Paul J. Maddon, the company’s chief executive, said. “This is our first U.S. product approval.”

The company said more than 1.5 million Americans each year receive pain medication due to advanced illnesses such as cancer, end-stage heart and lung disease and AIDS. Many of these patients receive opiods for the pain and experts have found serious constipation strikes nearly all of them, the company said.

Wyeth, which has a campus in Pearl River, will make a $15 million payment to Progenics as a result of the approval. The companies have a 2005 agreement to develop and market the drug.

Jarden Corp., the consumer products company based in Rye, said it has been listed in the new Fortune 500 listing of the nation’s largest companies. The company said its sales grew 21 percent to $4.7 billion last fiscal year. That moved the company from 544th on the list to 492nd.

Shares of MBIA Inc., the Armonk-based bond insurer, bounced back a bit today after dropping 33.8 percent yesterday. The shares rose $1.01, or 11.5 percent, to close at $9.80. The shares dropped yesterday on news that another bond insurer, Ambac Financial Group Inc., posted a larger quarterly loss than Wall Street analysts expected. MBIA has taken a beaten due its exposure to subprime loans. The company’s shares are down 86.5 percent since the start of last year.

Shares of Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. surged $2.61, or 32.5 percent, today as the Eastview-based biotechnology company announced that regulators in Europe offered a positive opinion of a product candidate that would treat constipation in certain patients. Progenics and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals are seeking to develop and market the drug, called Relistor. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use will send is opinion to the European Commission, the company said. Progenics shares closed at $10.64. Shares of Wyeth, which has a campus in Pearl River, rose 12 cents to close at $44.56.

Jarden Corp., the consumer products company based in Rye, said it is on the new Fortune 500 listing of the nation’s largest companies. The company said its sales grew 21 percent to $4.7 billion last fiscal year. That moved the company from 544th on the list to 492nd.

CryptoMetrics, a Tuckahoe company that provides technology to identify people by their facial features, has landed a contract with the Taiwan Bureau of Consular Services. Terms of the agreement were not released.

But the company will help the Taiwanese government improve security in its issuance of passports. The company will work with Hewlett Packard, providing software that Taiwanese authorities will use to confirm the identity of those who apply for passports.

The software will capture people’s facial features and compares them to those of people on a national security watchlist.

Hudson Technologies Inc., a Pearl River company that decontaminates refrigeration equipment, said this morning it has expanded its borrowing agreement with Keltic Financial Partners to $15 million.

Before the changes to its agreement with Keltic, Hudson had the ability to borrow up to $10 million. The new agreement will be in place through June 2011.

Hudson can increase the borrowing limit to $20 million by meeting certain conditions.

“The expansion of our credit line supports our continued development and growth,” said Kevin J. Zugibe, Hudson’s chairman and chief executive.

EpiCept Corp., an Eastview company that develops treatments for pain and cancer, has been notified by Nasdaq that it is out of compliance with listing requirements because its stock price closed below $1 a share for 30 straight days. The company now has 180 days, or until Oct. 13, to regain compliance with the rule by seeing that its stock closes at $1 a share or higher for at least 10 straight days.

White Plains-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. said it will set a new standard for environmental friendliness and energy efficiency with its Element hotels.

The company said it will require all of the hotels to seek what is known was LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The acronym stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

“There are a number of different hoteliers and organizations that have buildings (with the LEED status). But we’ll be the first to have an entire brand of hotels,” Angela Bliss, a spokesperson for Starwood said.

Starwood plans to open 20 Element hotels by the end of 2009. The first is due to open in Lexington, Mass. — which is about 15 miles northwest of Boston — in July.

The company plans to open a 400-room Element hotel in Manhattan’s Time Square by the end of 2010.
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Starwood said the Element hotels will include energy-efficient appliances and lighting and water-efficient faucets. The carpets will be made from recycled material and contain pads that improve the quality of the air in the building. The paints will be less toxic than conventional paints. Guests who drive hybrid cars will get special parking spots.

The numerous other features will include bins for paper, plastic and glass to make it easy to recycle, roofs that reflect heat from the sun, meaning the air conditioning systems will not have to work as hard and adjustable thermostats.

Even the “Do not disturb” signs will be environmentally friendly. They’ll be made out of magnets, instead of paper, the company said.
Starwood is a public company and that means it gave careful consideration to the economics of the idea.

Bliss said the company believes going green will add only about 5 percent to the cost of each building. But the company will recoup that money through energy savings in a few years, she said.

The Rockland Industrial Development Agency has collected $145,000 in tax incentives and related fees from a California mortgage company that opened an office in Orangeburg, which it later closed, the IDA’s top officer said.

WMC Mortgage Inc. of Burbank refunded $97,000 in sales tax breaks to the IDA, plus 18 percent interest and attorneys’ fees, said Ronald Hicks, who also serves as president and chief executive of the Rockland Economic Development Corp.

The IDA and Empire State Development Corp. provided a package of incentives to lure WMC to Rockland in 2004. The company had an agreement to hire 300 workers within three years and keep them in place through 2010, but subprime mortgage problems led to financial difficulties that caused the company to close the Orangeburg office last year.

This was the first time that the IDA has had to recapture tax incentives after a business deal went awry, Hicks said. In January, Empire State Development said it recovered 60 percent of an $800,000 grant it provided to WMC.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has entered into a $375 million loan agreement with various lenders as part of an amended credit agreement, the hotelier disclosed in a regulatory filing today.

Proceeds from the loan will be used to repay debt, to pay fees and expenses related to the repayment and for general corporate purposes, the White Plains-based company said.