Diamond Foods (DMND) acquired the Pringle brand product from Proctor & Gamble (PG) for $2.35 billion, as reported in Dealbook.

When we think of Diamond Foods we think of nuts, edible nuts. Diamond's two main brands are Diamond and Emerald. It produces all kinds of nut products for cooking and eating. Among them are almonds, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pine nuts and peanuts. The product line also includes microwave popcorn and potato chips.

Do you want to watch television on your iPad? No problem. Just download an app. Cablevision (CVC) claims that its customers can watch 300 channels at home, according to Reuters.

The interesting feature of this program is that you don't need the Internet. Cablevision uses a digital code to deliver content to an Apple (AAPL) iPad. The app allows you to search channels by genre and record programs.

Slowly, an assessment of the damage to chip plants in Japan is emerging. This story tells about just one such plant. It sheds light on what we can expect in the way of future shipments.

The company is Renesas Electronics (RNECY). It is is important because it supplies the automotive industry with car navigation chips. In Japan, it provides 41% of the chips used by Japanese automakers,

There are a lot of upset people today following Google's announcement that Kansas City was the company's choice for its blistering fast 1 Gbps broadband Internet.

When Google (GOOG) announced its desire to find a place to test the development of a 1 gigabit fiber to the home network last February, cities and towns all across the nation started working on their presentations to get Google to come to their area. Google received 1,100 applications, but in the end, it is Kansas City that got the nod.

Discount retailer Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO) reported its fiscal second quarter results this morning, topping analyst estimates and sending the stock higher in premarket trading.

For the quarter, Family Dollar reported it earned 98 cents per share, topping analyst estimates by a penny. During the same period last year, the company earned 81 cents per share.

A new business model is springing up right under our noses. The big players like Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Google (GOOG) have put together a one-stop shop in their app stores.

First off, an app store is just that, a place where you can pick and choose the apps you want to download. The app store is also a place where entrepreneurs can develop an app and with permission place it on the iPhone, iPad or Android device.

Japan has closed 11 nuclear plants. They will need a different energy source to replace their nuclear losses. Natural gas is one such energy source. Natural gas must be liquefied for transport. Much of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply could come from Europe.

One company, Golar (GLNG), has a fleet of transport ships that can carry LNG. Their ships have the capacity to dock at a port and transfer their LNG supply to an onshore receiving unit. Their ships have special units that can do the transfer operation. The fleet is capable of carrying 1.7 cubic meters of LNG.

The rebuilding of Japan will require large amounts of basic materials. One such material is cement. Cement is used in virtually every type of large building or factory.

It might be helpful to look at some cement stocks. Here are just a few, along with their recent share prices:

• Lafarge Coppee (LFRGY): $14.00. One of the world's largest cement and gypsum manufacturers.

The crisis in Japan will require all sorts of construction materials for rebuilding destroyed buildings and factories. Steel is used in most construction projects. Here in the United States, U.S. Steel (X) is a dominant player.

Let's look at the company profile and earnings reports. "Based in Pittsburgh, the company operates mills throughout the Midwest, in Ontario, Canada, Serbia and Slovakia. The company makes semi finished steel, tubular and plate steel and tin products. Its annual production capacity is about 32 million tons of raw steel. The company's customers are from autos, chemical and steel service center industries."

Would you buy a used Apple (AAPL) iPad? It seems that the market for used electronics is booming. Much of it is resold to developing countries. But even here in the U.S. consumers are dumping their old iPads and buying the new iPad2, the Financial Times reports.

That sets up a huge secondary market. The big beneficiaries are eBay (EBAY) and the Apple Store. On eBay, for example, sales jumped from 3,300 to 7,700 in a week with prices dropping from $531 to $484 in just one week. If buyers had done some research they could have bought the same unit from the Apple Store for $399, according to the FT.

Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing has recently added a new feature called Price Predictors to its travel searches, which automatically suggest flights based on the best air fares -- and even recommends if you should buy now or hold off for a better price based on how fares are trending. For flexible travelers, suggestions are offered as one types in the search bar. We believe this will have an impact on companies like Expedia (EXPE), the largest U.S. online travel agency by booking volumes, and challenge Google's (GOOG) move into the travel search.

There are literally hundreds of new drugs hitting the market each year. Why write about this particular drug? The drug bears discussion because it is the first one in 50 years to treat a disease called Lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system turns against part of the body it is designated to protect. It causes debilitating joint pain, organ damage and skin rashes. Up to now the key medication used to treat Lupus are steroids.

A team of researchers from Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) headed by William Haseltine started looking at genes and their special functions. The problem was that there was no gene known to cause Lupus. So they started thinking outside the box. Instead of finding the gene first and then its function, they looked for the function then found the gene called BLyS that is elevated in Lupus. The new drug is called Benlysta.

When dealing with large companies, have you ever felt you were living through a scene from a Seinfeld episode?

In January Wells Fargo (WFC) completed a majority of its integration with Wachovia, and I fear it will take years working out the bugs in the system. I say this because I am a major client, shareholder and trader dealing with the company on numerous levels, and the past few weeks would be comedic if not so infuriating.