When it comes to selling houses, there are all sorts of unwelcome delays that can leave a sale dragging on for months after the property has first been put on the market.

However, there are now a number of property investment companies and house purchasers who will offer up cash for house and homes, in order to move the property selling process on much faster.

The result is the ability to sell house fast, or any other home or property, allowing the seller to reinvest their home equity into a new house purchase, whether at home or abroad, or else use the assets to pay off debts and move towards a position of stronger financial stability.

The US Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that it investigating reports that up to 38 men who used the impotence drug Viagra have suffered vision loss.

Pfizer, the company that makes Viagra and the largest pharmaceuticals group in the world, defended its product, saying that there is no evidence that the type of vision loss reported in the Viagra users is more frequent in users of the drug than it is in men who do not use it.

The company also said that the type of vision loss being reported by users of the drug is common in men over 50 who have conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, conditions that can also cause the impotence problems that Viagra treats.

This, Pfizer claims, makes it impossible to tell whether the drug itself had anything to do with the men’s loss of vision. Notwithstanding their defense of Viagra, Pfizer is in talks with the FDA over the possibility of revising safety warnings on the drug.

Shares of Pfizer lost nearly 2 percent of their value on the New York Stock Exchange Friday after reports of the vision problems were announced.

Hyundai has opened its first plant in the US, located in Montgomery, Alabama. It is a $1.1 billion facility that the company claims to be the most advanced in the world.

Hyundai joins Honda and Mercedes in Alabama, to become the third foreign automobile manufacturer located there.

Once the plant swings into full production, Alabama will have the capacity to make 800,000 cars per year, up from zero auto production just eight years ago.

The American South has become a rival to the traditional Michigan automakers and a favorite location for foreign manufacturers because the South is less unionized and wages are much lower there.

Hyundai sold 419,000 cars in the United States last year, amounting to 4.1 percent of the total market, and is also becoming more of a force in Europe, where it is currently building a $1 billion plant in Slovakia.

The company is already the number one seller of cars in China and India.

Warner Music Group stocks fell 7 percent Wednesday on the debut of its Initial Public Offering. This was seen as an expression of lack of faith in an unsettled music industry by investors.

Among the factors that investors might be thinking about are the constant technological changes affecting the industry, the fact that the music industry must adjust to new ways of distributing music, and the effect of digital piracy on the industry’s bottom line.

Warner’s raised $554.2 million, selling 32.6 million shares at a price of $17. It had hoped to raise over $750 million dollars on shares selling at between $22 and $24 per share.

Additionally, in early trading on Wednesday in New York, Warner’s shares had fallen $1.25 to $15.75.

Warner executives are putting the blame on the fall in share prices to a Tuesday sell-off of media shares brought on by DreamWorks’ negative first-quarter report and on recent weaknesses in the IPO market generally.

Some analysts, though, had said last week that Warner would likely have to drop the prices of its shares below the $20 mark per share.

General Electric will announce a plan on Monday that will see it investing in and developing new technologies meant to make industry’s activities less harmful to the environment.

GE’s new initiative is scheduled to be announced in a speech by the chairman and chief executive of the company in a speech in Washington, D.C., at George Washington University.

GE’s new initiative comes at a time when the Bush administration has started to encourage the development of environmentally friendly technologies.

Additionally, other industries have begun to recognize the business advantages of being seen as environmentally friendly.

These companies include several automobile manufacturers that have begun manufacturing gas-electric hybrid vehicles as well as UK energy company BP, which has recently expanded into solar power.

GE’s plan is for the company to invent “green” technologies. In order to accomplish this, GE will double its current investment in new product research.

GE will also make a commitment to reducing the production of greenhouse gasses as well as to making the environmental consequences of its operations known.

Despite the appearance of finality in the merger war between Qwest Communications and Verizon Communications when Qwest withdrew from the bidding a week ago, the battle might not yet be completely over.

After last Monday’s withdrawal, several MCI shareholders met with executives from Qwest to urge them to make another bid for MCI, the second-largest long-distance carrier in the U.S., telling the executives that they feel that a merger with Qwest has a better chance to produce growth than a merger between MCI and Verizon.

In response, Qwest on Monday said that it would not re-enter the bidding unless MCI shareholders vote down the pending Verizon when they meet in June or July to act on the proposed merger. This does not seem likely to happen, however, especially since Carlos Slim sold his 13 percent share in MCI, the largest single holding in the company, to Verizon recently.

In addition, MCI’s board has endorsed Verizon bids repeatedly, saying that Verizon is more stable financially than Qwest, a smaller company with considerable debt. MCI’s board has also said that a number of large business customers have threatened to leave MCI if it makes a deal with Qwest.

Retail sales figures released on Thursday show that buying has not slowed down even as higher gasoline prices are having some impact on shoppers’ habits. Sales increased in April across the board, from luxury retailers to discount stores. Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus saw its sales in its 37 stores increase by 12.5 percent. Department stores such as JC Penney, Federated, and Nordstrom all reported better than expected sales in stores that had been open for over a year, and all of these department stores increased their forecasts for first-quarter earnings. The impact that higher gas prices are having on shoppers’ habits - what they are buying and how many shopping trips they are taking - was revealed in data released by Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the United States. Wal-Mart figures showed that their customers are not coming to their stores as often, but they are buying more when they do go shopping. The data also showed that Wal-Mart customers are buying more food than general merchandise. Overall, Wal-Mart’ sales increased 0.9 percent in April, with Sam’s Club stores showing a 4.9 percent increase and an 0.1 percent increase at Wal-Mart stores.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin will, if the government approves, merge their satellite launch operations.

This move comes after several years of civil litigation between the two companies and the suspension of Boeing’s U.S. Air Force contracts.

The proposed merger would save the government an estimated $100 million to $150 million per year and will effectively put an end to the U.S. government strategy that keeps two launch services available to the military.

The Air Force supports the planned merger. Even if the merger happens, each company’s rockets - Lockheed’s Atlas V series and Boeing’s Delta IV rockets - would be maintained, but two companies’ supportive infrastructure, including administration, launch, and manufacturing operations, would be merged into one entity.

One reason for this merger might well be the collapse in the market for commercial launches. In the 1990s, when the two-launch operations strategy was created, the commercial market was expected to provide enough contracts for two separate entities.

The litigation and ethics scandal that caused the suspension of $1 billion dollars worth of government contracts with Boeing were the result of accusations that Boeing acquired proprietary information belonging to Lockheed and used it to win a 1998 Air Force contract to Lockheed to win an Air Force contract in 1998.

After declaring a revised merger bid from Qwest Communications superior on April 21, MCI has now announced that it would be more likely to accept a revised offer from Verizon superior due to pressure exerted by its business customers.

In making Monday’s announcement, MCI said that some of its “most important business customers” have indicated a preference for Verizon over Qwest and that some had indicated they would seek to end their MCI contracts if the Qwest deal were accepted.

MCI also listed in its announcement a number of other factors it is taking into consideration in evaluating the two bids.

Meanwhile, Qwest claims that a survey it conducted shows that a majority of MCI shareholders prefer their bid over Verizon’s.

Verizon‘s new offer was for $26 per share, made up of $5.60 cash and either 0.5743 Verizon shares for each MCI share or $20.40 in value, whichever is greater.

This offer totals $8.45 billion in comparison to a $9.9 billion bid from Qwest, which amounts to $30 per share - $16 in case and 3.373 Qwest shares at a $14 fixed value.