Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with words firm+investors. 3 news.

Stocks closed higher Monday afternoon at the end of a half-day of trading on the eve of a Christmas pause, as investors flocked to financial services firms after yet another Wall Street firm announced a big foreign cash investment.

For Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the leading investors in green tech and a partner with Al Gore, it hasn’t exactly been a completely smooth year, CNet News.com says. For one thing, the publication notes, some of the firm’s portfolio companies suffered setbacks. Thin-film solar-panel maker Miasole had to delay production, make significant layoffs [...]

BG Medicine, a small Waltham company trying to develop novel medical tests, has postponed its initial public offering until next year after failing to excite enough investors to go public this month, analysts say.