1 WHOLE FOODS GOES WILD

The twists and turns of Whole Foods' acquisition of Boulder's Wild Oats dominated headlines for the six-plus months the deal was in limbo.

It wasn't just another story about a local company being bought by a larger out-of-state firm. The effects of the $565 million buyout were vast: It stood to impact hundreds of people in Wild Oats' work force, the success of Boulder's new retail center and its tenants, the local economy and people, across the country, who purchase natural products.

The uncertainty of the after-effects grew in June when the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint to block the acquisition, claiming it was anticompetitive and would cause harm to consumers by increased prices.

After a two-day hearing in Washington, D.C., a federal judge's ruling and a negated appeal, Whole Foods finally bought its rival.

Layoffs at Wild Oats did -- and continue to -- occur. Whole Foods, which moved its Rocky Mountain regional headquarters to Boulder, didn't close any of the Boulder County Wild Oats stores, but it also did not open the Twenty Ninth Street anchor that would have been Wild Oats' flagship store. More changes are expected to come in the New Year.

2 HOUSING WOES WORSEN

During the month of October, the number of Boulder County residents who defaulted on their home loans hit a 10-year high.

Amidst the growth of local foreclosures, a dark story played out in the nation's housing market, leaving everyone from investors to average Joes -- who bought houses they couldn't afford by taking advantage of too-good-to-be-true adjustable-rate mortgages -- wondering how messy the fallout will be from the collapse of the subprime market.

3 TWENTY NINTH STREET SETTLES IN

The past 12 months served as a time of seasoning for Boulder's young Twenty Ninth Street.

The retail district continued to fill out, with the opening of new stores, but it faced some backlash over what was missing. By mid-year, it was still without two anchors -- a 16-screen movie theater and a Wild Oats store. The delays were out of the mall developer's control, officials said, but that didn't seem to appease some residents and tenants.

The owners of longtime local restaurant Laudisio filed a lawsuit, claiming a lack of foot traffic at the mall caused more than $1 million in damages. Separately, local residents lambasted the design and offerings of the center.

The Wild Oats never opened, but the theaters finally did in August. The mall is on pace to meet officials' expectations and the city credited new store openings at the center as a driving factor in a 9.5 percent year-to-date sales-tax revenue increase.

4 BESTBANK FOUNDER'S SUICIDE

The nine-year saga of Boulder's BestBank was expected to come to a resolution in 2007 -- but not in such a shocking manner.

In the early morning hours before BestBank founder Edward Mattar III was scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison for his role in the bank's failure and the losses of millions of its depositors' dollars, Mattar leaped to his death from the 27th floor of a Denver apartment building.

Earlier in the year, a couple BestBank executives and two Florida businessmen were convicted of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to serve up to 10 years in federal prison. Attorneys on both sides expected Mattar to be sentenced to serve more than seven years in prison and forfeit millions.

5 CELGENE MAKES BIOTECH PLAYS

Boulder this year gained a substantial new member to its biotechnology family with a cancer-fighting drugmaker that committed to invest more than $3 billion in the local area.

In September, Summit, N.J.-based Celgene Corp. entered into a drug-discovery partnership with Boulder-based Array BioPharma, a deal that could net Array more than $1 billion. Two days after that announcement, Celgene was revealed as a participant in Louisville-based GlobeImmune's recent $41.2 million funding round.

Celgene outdid itself last month when it announced plans to purchase Boulder's Pharmion Corp. for $2.9 billion -- the largest local buyout of the year.

6 PEARL STREET'S CHANGING FACE

Two days ago, Tom's Tavern served its last burger -- what will replace the Pearl Street landmark remains to be seen. Similarly, the future of the primo 11th and Pearl corner space is up in the air with Atmosphere on its way out, another departure that symbolized the changing face of Pearl Street.

While the large space left in the wake of Borders Books & Music's January sashay over to Twenty Ninth Street remained empty, companies including prAna and Patagonia made plans to fill other high-profile spots. New faces such as Savvy, Jake Rocks, Quicksilver and Goldmine Vintage replaced the 1100 block's Sunglass Hut, Banana Republic, Active Endeavors, and April Cornell stores, respectively.

7 TECH SPIN-OFFS

Two tech giants' spin-offs had a big impact locally.

IBM Corp. spun off its Boulder-based Printing Services Division to a joint venture with Japan-based Ricoh Co. called InfoPrint Solutions Co. During the next three years, Ricoh will fully acquire InfoPrint. Officials of the newly created InfoPrint lauded the deal, saying the potential for growth is greater than ever before.

When Tyco International splintered into three factions, Boulder ended up being the home to two divisions -- formerly Valleylab and Nellcor Puritan Bennett -- that have a large role in the future of Covidien, a $9.6 billion health-care products company.

8 TECHSTARS BURN BRIGHT

Long praised for its entrepreneurial and innovative business scene, Boulder played host this summer to a startup boot camp called TechStars -- a brainchild of four of the area's notable entrepreneurs and investors.

Hundreds of companies from around the nation applied, and 10 were chosen for the summer boot camp. After the camp was over, some of the companies received investments and a number of them decided to stay and grow their businesses in Boulder.

9 SUN SETS ON STORAGETEK SITE

Two years after buying Louisville-based Storage Technology Corp., network giant Sun Microsystems confirmed it had sold the local data storage firm's 432-acre campus -- but officials still haven't revealed to whom the site was sold. Speculation has put the price tag at $60 million and the buyers as bigwigs such as eBay, Apple or Google.

10 NORTHWEST PARKWAY LEASED

A foreign consortium now operates the Northwest Parkway toll road that connects U.S. 36 to Interstate 25. The board of directors for the 3 ½-year-old tollway agreed to hand over the reigns to Brisa Auto-Estradas de Portugal and Companhia de Concessoes Rodoviarias in a 99-year deal for $603 million.