World Business Roundup on July 17

• Source: Global Times
• [07:11 July 17 2009]
• Comments

Facebook attracts 250m

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that the number of accounts created on the online social networking service had climbed to 250 million.

“The rapid pace of our growth is humbling and exciting for us,” Zuckerberg said in a message posted on Facebook's official blog.

“For us, growing to 250 million users is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made.”

Facebook was founded in 2004 and has become the world's most popular online social networking service.

Porsche-VW merger

Owners of German sports car maker Porsche are close to an agreement that would combine the heavily indebted company with Volkswagen and sell VW stock options to Qatar, press reports said yesterday.

The Porsche and Piech families are “poised to settle their feud” over a bailout plan that would see VW buy 49 percent of Porsche, Qatar become the third-biggest shareholder in VW, and Porsche's massive debt nearly wiped out, the Financial Times Deutschland and Financial Times reported.

While no firm decisions have been taken yet, both Porsche and VW have called extraordinary supervisory board meetings July 23 in the southwestern city of Stuttgart, where Porsche is based.

Foreclosures hit record

US home foreclosure activity galloped to a record in the first half of the year, overwhelming broad efforts to remedy failing loans while job losses escalated.

Foreclosure filings jumped to a record 1.9 million on more than 1.5 million properties in the first six months of the year, RealtyTrac said yesterday.

The number of properties drawing filings, which include notices of default and auctions, jumped 9 percent from the second half of 2008.

AFP