Reports this morning suggest that EBAY Inc is about to sell Skype to a group of private investors

The New York Times this morning reports sources that suggest that Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm headed by  Marc Andreessen (Netscape co-founder), is likely to be among the investors in the group. Others involved are said to be London based Venture Capitalists.

Ebay have declined to comment.

The death has taken place of the last of the Kennedy Brothers, Ted, at the Kennedy family home in Hyannis Port, Cape Cod.

77 year old Senator Kennedy had been battling cancer since May 2008 and dies less than 2 weeks after the passing of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

Known affectionately as ‘Teddy’, he was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960’s and Joe Kennedy, a pilot killed in World War Two. Kennedy first became a senator for Massachusetts in 1962 following the election of John as president.

The Kennedy family issued a statement last night stating “‘Edward M. Kennedy — the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply — died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port”

Tributes have been sent from world leaders throughout the globe

Home loan defaults continued at a record pace in July despite ongoing programs by government authorities at both federal and state level to avoid foreclosures.

Home seizure activity jumped by 7 percent in July from just a month previously and a massive 32 percent from a year earlier.

According to RealtyTrac this morning, one in every 355 mortgaged households got a foreclosure filing.

“July marks the third time in the last five months where we’ve seen a new record set for foreclosure activity,” according ot James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive, in a statement.

“Despite continued efforts by the federal government and state governments to patch together a safety net for distressed homeowners, we’re seeing significant growth in both the initial notices of default and in the bank repossessions.”

SUN BELT AMONG WORST AFFECTED

Areas where property prices rose most in the five-year housing bubble earlier this decade remain hardest hit by the current recession. Just four states, Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida, accounted for over half of total U.S. foreclosure activity in July.

Sister of  Democrat Senators, Attorney General and President of the USA and Mother in law of a Republican Governor, Eunice Kennedy Shriver has passed  in a Cape Cod hospital at the age of 88.

Shriver will be best known in her own right for having founded the Special Olympics in 1968.

Eunice Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachussetts in 1921 as the fifth of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s nine children.
She grew up in Massachusetts, Florida and London where Joe served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.

The Kennedy family issued a statement following Shriver’s death this morning saying, “It is hard for us to believe the amazing Eunice Kennedy Shriver went home to God this morning at 2 a.m. She was the light of our lives — a mother, wife, grandmother, sister and aunt — and taught us by example, and with passion, what it means to live a faith-driven life of love and service to others.”

Former US President, Bill Clinton, has left North Korea with 2 journalists from the USA, having negotiated their release from their 4 month custody in the communist state.

While teh White House is denying that any “rewards” were offered to the isolated asian state, many observers believe that the meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could open the door to direct talks on the prospect of a nuclear disarmament treaty.

The WhiteHouse has to strike a fine balance between bringing North Korea in from the international wilderness and being seen to reward recent provocative military acts of defiance in the face of international pressure.

A WhiteHouse official told reporters in Washington that “President Clinton had made clear that this was a purely private humanitarian mission”

Paula Abdul has announced that she is going to quit the popular US Reality TV show  “American Idol”

She made the decision public via her Twitter account yesterday saying with sadness in her heart she had decided not to return to “Idol” which is due to start auditions for the next season within days.

Despite declining ratings “American Idol” is still America’s most watched TV show, with an average 26.3 million viewers tuning in to each episode last season.

RBS, (Royal Bank of Scotland, parent of Citizens Bank & ABN Amro) has finalized a deal worth $550m to sell its operations in six Asian countries to ANZ (the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group). The deal involves operations in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong the Philippines and Vietnam.

The move is part of the drive by the bank that has been part-nationalized to slim down its balance sheet and focus on core markets. RBS will maintain operations in 11 markets in Asia.

British Bank, Northern Rock, has reported losses of more than $1.2Billion (UK£724 Million) for the first 6 months of 2009. This signals a worsening of the situation for the bank as it shows an increase of 24% over the loss for the first 6 moths of 2008 in local currency.

The bank, that was nationalised in February 2008 owes the British Government a whopping $18Billion and the government is waiting regulatory approval from the EU to pump even more taxpayers money into the bank.

Northern Rock is in the process of being split into two companies, one of which will hold savers’ money and be responsible for new lending, while the other will hold many of the existing loans and be responsible for paying back loans to the government.

A tsunami warning has been issued after an earthquake of 7.8 (on Richter Scale) off New Zealand’s western coast today.

The epicenter of the earthquake was about 100 miles west of Invercargill on New Zealand’s South Island.

The quake struck at a depth of 21 miles at 9:22am GMT

Iranian state radio said today that authorities have publicly hanged 14 members of a Sunni rebel group that have been blamed for bombings and killings in southeastern Iran.

Today’s report said the hangings took place 930 miles southeast of the capital Tehran in the city of Zahedan.

The 14 executed rebels included Abdulhamid Rigi who was the brother of Abdulmalik Rigi, the leader of Jundallah ( soldiers of God), a Sunni Muslim group that Iran said has close ties to “foreign forces” in neighbouring Afghanistan, referring to the al-Qaida terror group.

Britvic PLC, maker of Robinsons and Tango (and UK distributor of Pepsi, Gatorade and 7Up on behalf of PepsiCo Inc) said this morning that expectations on its full-year results are ahead of analysts forecasts having seen particularly strong trading in the third and fourth quarter of their FY to date.

Market forecasts for full-year underlying pretax profit currently range between US$103 million and US$132 million  according to a poll of 12 analysts by Reuters.

Revenues in the Great Britain and International divisions grew by 11.6% but Britvic Ireland the division they purchased from C&C PLC just under 2 years ago has seen sales volumes fall by a massive 20.3%.

C&C PLC the maker of Magners Cider saw 10% wiped off the value of its shares this morning amida serious blow to the integrity of the management at the LSE listed company.

Just last week, analysts were looking at C&C as a star performer as it issued a trading statement showing revenue in its largest market (Ireland) was up 7% for the 4 months to the end of June.

However the latest story from C&C is that overall sales are down 5% for the period.

The 10% drop in price may represent a buying opportunity as the company maintains its guidance that earnings will be at the higher end of the €77m-€82m range………. if you can believe them

The Venezuelan government have banned Coke Zero from sale in the country following the discovery that it contains a sweetner called sodium cyclamate.

This artificial additive is banned in many countries including the USA.

Why would a company of the international profile of Coca Cola use a dangerous additive in its ingredients. Surely if they know they cannot use it in their home market of the USA because it may cause cancer, they should not use it in other countries either??
They obviously have very little regard for the people of Venezuela or else are making a very negative statement about the FDA in the USA?

So do they use this ingredient everywhere outside the USA or just in Venezuela? If you live outside the USA, check the ingredients on Coke Zero before you drink it! Make sure there is no sodium cyclamate in it.

General Motors has announced this morning that it is about to cut 1600 jobs in the United States this week as the company rushes to meet a June 1st deadline to restructure its operation under U.S. government oversight.
The reductions are part of GM’s plan to slash its global salaried work force by about 10,000, or 14 percent, in a bid to cut costs.
The severance will take place May 1st and is in addition to the 37,000 hourly jobs worldwide that GM plans to cut by the end of the year.

GM, founded in 1908, has its headquarters in Detroit MI and is the world’s second largest car maker after Toyota of Japan.  IT currently employs over a quarter of a million people worldwide

Global food company PepsiCo has made an offer to both its Anchor Bottling groups to buy the shares it doesn’t already own.

The consolidation proposal would give the company control of 80%  of its North American soft drink distribution.

PepsiCo spun off the two companies 10 years ago to focus on what it does best, namely the marketing and expansion of its soft-drinks portfolio. However, in an ever changing world the decision to assume control of bottling again comes as no surprise.

PepsiCo has offered $29.50 per share for PBG and $23.37 for PAS. the stocks closed on Friday at $25.20 and $19.88 respectively.

Meanwhile PepsiCo reported better-than-expected quarterly results and confirmed its outlook for the full year. The company’s core earnings were $0.71 per share for the quarter.