The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft is settling a transaction to purchase Skype for as much as $8 billion.

The reports from The Wall Street Journal stated that an agreement between Microsoft and Skype can be released as early as Tuesday. Moreover, people familiar with the matter said that the agreement is projected to cost technology giant between & billion and $8 billion, with the sum value topping almost $8.5 billion once the long-term debt of Skype is taken into account.

Skype was established in 2003 and has seen development to 663 million registered users. eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, but in 2009, it sold 70 percent of the firm to private investors. According to the sources of The Wall Street Journal, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs Group advised Skype on the transaction. Facebook and Google had also been rumored to be interested in purchasing Skype.

The deal will be an unusually aggressive move for Microsoft, which has conventionally prevented huge transactions. The company will look to Skype for help in contending the Voice over video and IP chat markets. Apple, its long time rival, has seen its Face Time standard take off as sales of iPhone 4 have been on a tear, while Google has seen success with its service of Google Talk.

The report also showed that Steve Ballmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, observes the Internet as an important battleground for the firm. The Online Services Division of the company lost $726 million last quarter. From its online group, Microsoft lost $2.5 billion in the previous year. However, it is not directly clear how Skype will aid turn those deficits around as the company also lost $7 million last year off of income of $860 million.

Los Angeles Lakers unraveled too late Monday night on their second-round playoff series against Dallas Mavericks, sealing Game 1 with 96-94 loss.

According to reports, Dirk Nowitzki finished with team-high 28 points and 14 rebounds, making 11 of 22 shots. Sports analysts said that Dallas was the kind of team that appeared out of sorts earlier.

As the Lakers raced up court to cut the lead before the first-half buzzer sounded, Jason Terry fouled Lamar Odom as he put up a shot from half court with 0.7 of a second left on the clock. The 31-year old forward sank all three free throws and on the last, Nowitzki and Ron Artest became tangled beneath the basket. Nowitzki tried to release himself by throwing an elbow and received a technical.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the press during an interview inside the team’s locker room that it seems like they have thrown the game away. Sports analysts said that Monday night’s result was a mistake of Lakers. They said that the team only gave Mavericks an opportunity to pull out the late victory to begin with.

With the Lakers clinging to a 94-93 lead with under a minute to play, Bryant drove through the lane and with nowhere to go, threw the ball away to Jason Terry. Pau Gasol, on the other hand, fouled Nowitzki that led to free throw shots in favor of Dallas. Bryant missed a three-point attempt at the buzzer, sealing Dallas’ 96-94 victory and a transfer of home-court advantage between the Lakers and Mavericks.

Atlanta Hawks won against the top-seeded Chicago Bulls in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals Monday night.

The game ended with a score of 103-95 in favor of the Hawks. The 29-year old Joe Johnson led the team to its victory, pouring out 34 points for Atlanta, including five for five from three-point range as the No.5 seeded Hawks withstood a third-quarter Chicago run to take home-court advantage in the series.

According to reports, the Bulls started the game quite very sluggish as they had in four of their five games in their first round series victory against the Indiana Pacers. At the start of the game, Atlanta went with their smaller front line against the Bulls, starting Al Horford at center and Marvin Williams at small forward. In an interview with Larry Drew, head coach of Hawks, said that for this particular game he was just comfortable in going for small starters.

Some sports analyst said that this night is not just made for Bulls. During the first half of the game, Carlos Boozer, who still suffering from an injury on his ankle, seemed like he was trying to find his timing not to upset his team. Nonetheless, Boozer was able to rack up 14 points and eight rebounds for Bulls Monday night, showing flashes of the type of player that the team expected him to be when the playoffs started.

The presumptive NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose even made it worse for the Bulls in the final seconds after twisting his ankle that made him stay bent over on the court for several minutes before being helped off. Rose was held to five points on two of ten shooting in the first half, but got untracked in the second. He finished with 24 points after shooting nine of 17 in the second half.

Google, a technology giant, announced the arrival of its video chat software for Android phones and Google Talk will become part of the imminent update for Android OS.

In addition, Google Talk with video chat will let its users to chat their friends with video using either the same software or Gmail with Google Talk on computers. It will be likely to make calls over Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G, not like, for instance, the FaceTime of Apple, which is presently works only thru the use of Wi-Fi.

On its Google Mobile blog, the company explains that on the users’ friends list in Google Talk, the button of voice or video chat will appear next to their contact lists and they can simply click the button to access with them.

Furthermore, any text chats from the person that a user is talking with will be placed on top on their phone’s screen so that read them without having to put down the video call.

Google also posted in their blog that if a user need to check something else, the video call pauses automatically so that the user can return to the home screen or another application on their phones. The audio will keep going even if the video has paused.

However, Google Talk for Android phones is not yet available at present. It will be coming to the devices of Samsung Nexus S over the few weeks ahead as part of the over-the-air update of Android 2.3.4, and then to other devices of Android 2.3+.

Daimler, the second biggest manufacturer of luxury vehicles in the world, announced its operating income for the first quarter increased 71 percent.

According to the company, which is based in Stuttgart, Germany, the income before taxes and interest jumped to €20.03 billion, or $3.01 billion form €1.19 billion in a previous year. Revenue matched the average approximates of 12 analyst surveyed by Bloomberg worth €2 billion.

In addition, Daimler sales climbed 17 percent to €24.7 billion. The company caught to its estimate for considerably higher earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) this year compared with €7.2 billion last 2010. Daimler anticipates sales views for Mercedes-Benz’s updated C-Class car and overhauled SLK roadster to offset the possible consequences of the quake happened in March 11 in Japan.

The net profits of the company for its first quarter are almost twice as to €1.18 billion. The increasing economy of China is fueling order for automobiles form Volkswagen AG’s Audi, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Mercedes.

The top three manufacturers of luxury cars are all targeting record sales this 2011. In addition, Daimler plans to increase shipments to 1.5 million sedans by 2015, supported by a doubling of sales in China to 300,000 automobiles.

On the other hand, for the first time, VW’s Lamborghini super card brand may trade more automobiles in China than in the United States this year. The German automaker, which is 125-year-old now, plans to trade over 1.3 million Smart cars and Mercedes-Benz this year, compared with 1.28 million they sold last year.

Shipments also increased 13 percent in this quarter to 281,000 cars, rose by a 25 percent leap in the shipments of S-Class cars and a 78 percent increase in demand from China. Later this year, Mercedes-Benz will release a latest version of the B-Class compact.

According to a recent study, over half of children with newly detected epilepsy do not take their convulsion medicines as prescribed by their doctors.

The research is issued in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research also showed that almost 60 percent of pediatric patients trailed in the study were severely, moderately or mildly non-adherent with treatment during their first six months of medication.

Furthermore, several took far less treatment than prescribed by a doctor, and the medication-adherence pattern for the greater part of patients with epilepsy was recognized during the initial month of medication. Low status of socioeconomic was the only changeable examined that was connected with low medication adherence.

Almost 325,000 children below the age of 15-year-old in the United States have epileptic convulsions. Anti-convulsion medicines are effective in most of the children, but not all, with epilepsy. On the other hand, in adults, failure to take medicines or not taking it at all as prescribed to them has been shown to be connected with poorer results and worsening convulsions.

In children, medication adherence is identified by their caregivers or parents, but fewer are known with regard to the influences that push non-adherence and adherence. Dr. Avani Modi, researcher of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said that they have recognized that non-adherence in children, but they have not really identified what the patterns of adherence are.

The research involved 124 children with newly detected epilepsy being assessed at Cincinnati Children’s New Onset Seizure Clinic. Caregivers or parents were given medicines in special bottles that electronically checked how and when frequent the medicines were given out and they were asked to eliminate the medicines from the bottle at the time they were dispensed. Over the period of the research, many patterns of treatment non-adherence emerged.

Reports said that LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian had their small and private wedding ceremony on Malibu, California with their friends and family though that it was just a simple party.

LeAnn Rimes and the 37-year-old actor Eddie Cibrian exchanged their wedding vows on their private wedding on Malibu California with their 40 guests surrounding them. The guests in the wedding are their closest friends and dearest family. They exchanged their vows under a tree in sunset at a private estate in Malibu.

Their family and friends thought that they will be attending an engagement party of Rimes and Cibrian. But the party turned to be the actual wedding of the couple. LeAnn wears her Ream Acre gown in their wedding. They partied on their reception with their guests, their family and friends. The couple sliced their wedding cake while the song I’ve Got You Babe of Sonny and Cher is playing.

Rimes said on her Twitter account that they were overwhelmed for the best wishes that they got.

The newlywed is very happy and they thank everyone for their best wishes. LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian had a previous marriage with their previous husband and wife. Eddie Cibrian had two sons in his previous marriage with Brandi. His seven year old Mason and four year old Jake were included in their guests on their wedding.

Eddie Cibrian proposed to LeAnn Rimes on December 2010. He gave LeAnn a five carat Diamond ring when he proposed. The ring was designed by Brent Polacheck. Cibrian and his ex wife took legal procedures to end their marriage in September while Rimes had her divorce with her ex husband Dean Sheremet last summer. Rimes confessed that she could have handled the break up much better.

Most of the Asia stocks fell Tuesday after the Standard & Poor’s raised its warning to cut the US credit rating.

According to reports, MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 1.2 percent to 134.04 at around 12:55 p.m. in Tokyo Tuesday, with about five shares dropping for each that climbed on the 1,023-member gauge. The benchmark Nikkei average, on the other hand, fell 1.5 percent or 146.66 points to settle at 9,413.99.

Melbourne-based analysts said that once the US credit rating was downgraded, then there will be deflationary effects on the global market. It is because a lot of credit is denominated in US dollar, thus cutting it will likewise cut most of the credit all over the world. On the contrary, a Japanese broker said in an interview Tuesday that the US credit outlook cut will only have a short-term impact on Japan stocks when it comes to stronger yen.

In case of long-term impact, he said that it will only be limited. Meanwhile, Japan-based automaker, Toyota, was among those which fell Tuesday with about 2.6 percent decrease to settle at 3,140 yen. As a matter of fact, it was considered to be the biggest drag on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

Analysts said that decline in Toyota’s shares may have been triggered by the previous reports of the company’s temporary shutdown and parts shortage starting in late March and early this month. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index cumulatively lost 1.5 percent this year through yesterday, in comparison with gains of 3.8 percent by the S&P 500 and one percent by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

The government of Japan has called for Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to start compensating the provisional payment to almost 50,000 families who lived near Fukushima nuclear plant.

Banri Kaieda, the Industry Minister, stated that he wants the corporation to promptly give the payments to the families affected by the damage of the nuclear power plant. Kaieda also stated that the money is meant to help with temporary living expenditures for those who had to promptly abandon their houses with only the most basic of their needs.

Masataka Shimizu, the president of TEPCO, said that the families within the radius of 30 kilometers from the plant will acquire one million yen or almost $12,000, while those households with a single-member will get 75 percent of the said amount.

The president of TEPCO also said that starting March 28, the consultations for those with families within the area of evacuation zone will go on at a counseling center in the region of Fukushima. On the other hand, Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima, has been condemning the government and the utility for their management of the response to the nuclear catastrophe.

The governor said the first payments are far short of what the families need. Sato also said that this is simply the start, noting that the calamity has not still finished. He added that he will demand the government and TEPCO to compensate the whole amount for unsettling the lives of the members of the families who lived near Fukushima.

According to the officials, almost 140,000 individuals who ran away the radiation zone are still in refuges. In addition, the radiation has infected the crops and forced the other farmers to throw out their livestock. Also, fishermen have been incapable to trade their catches since there are a extensive fears with regard to seawater pollution.

Reports said Monday that US stocks futures gained as little as 0.1 percent due to problems such as disruption of electronics delivery, following Japan’s recent disaster.

Standard & Poor 500 Index futures for June delivery slightly increased by 0.1 percent to settle at 1,325.3 in London trading session early Monday, while Dow Jones Industrial Average likewise increased 0.1 percent to settle at 12,342. Nasdaq futures, on the other hand, gained as little as 0.2 percent to settle at 2,323.5.

Analysts said that this slight change in US stocks can weigh on the market in the short term, which is primarily caused by the setback in Japan’s economy. They said that the recent disaster in Japan has caused major damage not only in the land of the rising sun, but also to other countries that somehow depends on Japan’s manufacturing industries such as those in automotive and electronic industries.

Nonetheless, S&P 500 has still gained as much as 5.6 percent this year despite a previous drop late Friday due to increasing concern over disruption of oil shipments, following a fire burned at Libya’s Sarir field causing disturbance in North Africa and Middle East. Meanwhile, eleven companies are set to report earnings this week including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Google.

Market strategists said that the recent rally was quite impressive despite the devastating news on previous month. They said that what US stocks need is a support, which can come from the earnings season. They added that this can help trigger the sustainability of the rally in the global market.