Today's economics were dominated more by an extension of TARP and on creative ways of getting after cash bonuses for bankers than anything of real substance from government reporting agencies. Healthcare enjoyed a solid day in insurers as the public option seems to be out of the healthcare, ergo health insurance reform.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell figures:

Dow 10,337.13 +51.16 (0.50%)
S&P 500 1,095.79 +3.85 (0.35%)
Nasdaq 2,183.73 +10.74 (0.49%)

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With her homey look and her heavy New York accent, Wendy Kaufman entertained beverage fans everywhere with her TV appearances as the "Snapple Lady." Her silly responses to fan letters on advertisements gave her a cult following of sorts, and she was so authentic; she started out working in Snapple's marketing department and in 1993 was picked to appear in a campaign that ran heavily through 1995.

After having worked for a few corporate bosses as Snapple was bought and sold, finally ending up in Cadbury-Schweppes' newly-spun-off Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (NYSE: DPS), Kaufman was presented with a new "so one-sided" contract that she declined to sign in March. While a company spokesperson insists that the contract was lovely, Kaufman says it was "worth nothing" and will be headed off into the sunset to do voiceover work for Motorola.

She's definitely not "over" yet though. Thanks to an appearance on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club in 2004, she was back in the spotlight, and soon was planning to launch her own plus-size clothing line, WendyWear. Is Wendy Kaufman still somebody without her job as the Snapple Lady? She seems confident enough.

Cadbury Schweppes Plc (NYSE: CSG) will be spinning off its U.S. beverage unit soon after failing to find a buyer for the division, according to the company. Included in the spinoff will be popular brands Dr. Pepper and 7-UP, which will join other brands. The spinoff has been decided after seven months of fruitless searching by the British-based food giant to find a buyer for the unit.

Cadbury will soon be listing its U.S. drinks unit on the NYSE under a different ticker after finding that U.S. consumers are not choosing its products, opting apparently for competitive beverages from Coca-Cola, Inc. (NYSE: KO) and Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) among other drinks. Investment analyst Martin Deboo said from London that "They (Cadbury) wouldn't refuse any sensible offer, but the uncertainty around credit markets has to clear before bidders will come forward." In other words, the credit crisis that has semi-gripped parts of the U.S. economy made potential buyers cinch up those purse strings. As a result, no serious bidders ever emerged over the summer, much to the chagrin of Cadbury's management.

At this time, Cadbury's U.S. drinks division is pegged at a $14 billion value, and although a spin-off is not exciting to anyone, it's required lest Cadbury continue to allow the suboptimal U.S. performance drag its overall financials down. The spinoff won't be completed before the second calendar quarter of 2008, according to Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer. Earlier this year, Cadbury rejected an offer of about $13 billion from a private equity group comprised of the usual suspects: Blackstone Group LP, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Lion Capital LLP. Oh well -- it missed the boat and now has no buyers, so off to the NYSE it goes.

Cadbury Schwepps (NYSE: CSG) is trading up 1.5% in early trading today on reports that there are more bidders for its operations than non-mutants have as fingers. The company has been in talks and under plans to split apart the company from a confection and a beverage maker into two separate entities. The US-based beverage unit owns Dr. Pepper and Snapple, and reports in the Daily Telegraph put the value of this alone at 8 billion British pounds, or close to $16 billion in dollar terms.

The talk was that two private equity consortiums are in the lead, but this report states as many as 12 groups might be interested. What is interesting here is that the US-dollar equivalent market cap of the entire Cadbury Schwepps is about $28 billion. Its P/E ratio is also south of 13, which puts it far under peers. Hershey (NYSE: HSY) and Wrigley (NYSE: WWY) trade with P/E ratios north of 20, although that is because of near-term issues, and those numbers are lower if you use a smoothing out basis looking ahead to forward estimates. The same is true on the multiples for Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which are currently carrying P/E ratios over 20.

Cadbury is on a quest to unlock shareholder value. It has made this known. But what is becoming more and more apparent is that the entire kit and kaboodle may end up just being multiple subsidiaries of other companies.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Dr. Pepper's (Cadbury-Schweppes PLC, NYSE:CSG) longtime 10-2-4 slogan might become 24-7 as they launch a new promotion, Dr. Pepper Band in a Bubble, in cooperation with MTV. Beginning May 24th, the pop band Cartel will live around the clock for 20 days in a transparent domicile on Pier 54 in New York while they put together a new CD. MTV will compile the best of the video captured by cameras placed throughout the edifice into four half-hour broadcasts. The full feeds will also be available throughout the session via the internet.

The idea of packing a house with incandescent personalities and recording their meltdowns is tired fare for television, the most notable being CBS' Big Brother. Rock stars are well-mined too, as witnessed by Kiss frontman Gene Simmon's Family Jewels and Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne's The Osbournes. What we haven't seen before is a group of artists working in harmony to produce sterling music. That's probably the Doctor's biggest worry, though -- harmony makes poor television. There's a reason Anna Nicole Smith had her own TV show and Jamie Lee Curtis didn't.

The concept comes from the Mediaedge:cia agency. The five-person group is from Atlanta, and best known for their song "Honestly" (see below). I'd give you odds of 10 to 4 that it's no coincidence that their guitarist's name is Joseph Pepper.