In today’s wrapup of technology and life science news:

  • Apple picks Arizona for a new data center
  • Chimerix stops testing its Ebola vaccine
  • Apple selling billions in bonds
  • McKinney’s Super Bowl ad is the funny one for Nationwide.

The details:

  • Apple turning closed Arizona facility into data center

Tech giant Apple says it will invest billions of dollars to open a data center in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa that will be the company’s fifth in the U.S. and serve as a control facility for the other four.

Apple operates a data center in western North Carolina.

The announcement Monday comes four months after an earlier Apple plan for the 1.3 million-square-foot facility it bought in 2013 failed. Apple had a deal with another company to use the plant to make sapphire glass for its products, but the company declared bankruptcy after production issues developed and it had a public falling out with Apple.

A company spokesman says construction on the new data center should start next year. The company expects 150 permanent workers at the site, in addition to construction crews.

  • Chimerix stops Ebola vaccine trial

Durham-based Chimerix has stopped testing a possible Ebola vaccine, citing a decline in case.

The Wall Street Journal has the details: http://www.wsj.com/articles/chimerix-scraps-testing-of-experimental-ebola-drug-in-liberia-1422739087

  • Apple plans to sell as much as $6.5 billion in bonds

Apple is planning another large bond sale at a time when investors are paying near record premiums for high-quality bonds.

The technology giant will sell a combination of bonds with maturities ranging from five years to 30 years. The company was originally trying to sell $5 billion in bonds, according to traders, but investor demand has been strong and Apple’s offering might go as high as $6.5 billion.

The sale is not one of the largest bond offerings from Apple.

Apple sold roughly $17 billion in bonds in 2013, which at the time was the largest bond sale ever by a U.S. company. A year later, Apple sold $12 billion in bonds.

The company has used the proceeds previously to pay investors dividends and increase its share buybacks.

  • McKinney’s Nationwide ad was the funny one

Durham-based ad agency McKinney produced a spot for Nationwide in the Super Bowl – but it wasn’t the one that generated a lot of discussion.

McKinney’s was the humorous one, not the somber child’s tale.

So reports David Ranii of The News and Observer. read the story at: http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/02/02/4524916/mckinney-created-the-amusing-nationwide.html#storylink=cpy