MUMBAI, Nov 22 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries(RELI.BO) is offering about $12 billion to buy a controllinginterest in bankrupt chemical company LyondellBasell Industries[ACCEIN.UL] to create one of the largest petrochemical firm inthe world, two sources with direct knowledge of the deal said.

"The offer is in the vicinity of about $10 to $12 billion,"one source said, while another said it was around the upper endof the band. The two sources declined to be named as they arenot authorised to speak to the media.

Retailers are joining the Facebook and Twitter bandwagons for this year’s Black Friday.

Companies from Staples to Toys “R” Us are using the social networking sites to give loyal customers the first looks at sales and other deals for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that traditionally marks the start of the holiday shopping season. They’re also launching new technology including mobile shopping in time for Nov. 27.

LyondellBasell, along with its sizable Houston operations, could wind up under the control of Reliance Industries Limited, a fast-growing Indian firm that has offered to buy the bankrupt chemical giant once it emerges from Chapter 11.

Terms of the cash offer were not disclosed Saturday by either company.

But in a brief statement on Saturday, LyondellBasell called the bid a "potential alternative to the initial plan of reorganization" it filed in September, adding "management will continue to work with all parties" to ensure the best outcome for creditors and the company going forward.

SEOUL, South Korea—Apple Inc's iPhone is coming to South Korea this week, a local carrier announced Sunday, bringing the iconic communications device to one of the world's most sophisticated mobile phone markets.

KT Corp. began accepting orders for the iPhone both online and in stores Sunday and service will start Nov. 28 as part of an official launch, said Alice Park, a spokeswoman for the country's second-largest mobile carrier.

TO investment bankers, it's welcome news that Kraft Foods is offering more than $16 billion to acquire the British candymaker Cadbury: Maybe the frozen credit markets are thawing. As a chocolate fiend, bunkered in my kitchen alongside a simmering bain-marie, I find it an ominous prospect.

Four years ago, another American food giant, Hershey, swallowed up a small chocolate company named Scharffen Berger. Started in 1997 by a sparkling-wine producer, John Scharffenberger, and a doctor, Robert Steinberg, Scharffen Berger set out to make an American chocolate that was as delicious as a European confection. And, amazingly, the company succeeded.

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Reliance Industries Ltd., owner ofthe world’s largest oil-refining complex, made a cash offeryesterday to buy a controlling stake in closely heldLyondellBasell Industries AF, the bankrupt chemicals and fuelsmaker.

Terms weren’t disclosed. The buyout would be coordinatedwith emergence from bankruptcy and represents a “potentialalternative” to its reorganization plan, Rotterdam-basedLyondellBasell said in a statement. The offer is subject to duediligence and sufficient creditor support, Mumbai-based Reliancesaid in a news release.

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp.’s board mayextend its search for a new, permanent chief executive officerinto 2010 if directors can’t settle on a candidate in the nextfour days, according to people familiar with the matter.

The directors, who met Friday, may be willing go past theirNov. 26 target and the Dec. 31 retirement of CEO Kenneth D.Lewis if it means getting a better choice, according to a personfamiliar with the deliberations. At least four externalcandidates, including Citigroup Inc. director Michael O’Neill,rebuffed approaches. Options include an interim chief or a delayin Lewis’s retirement.

As millions of Americans struggle to hold on to their homes, Wall Street has found a way to make money from the mortgage mess.

Investment funds are buying billions of dollars' worth of home loans, discounted from the loans' original value. Then, in what might seem an act of charity, the funds are helping homeowners by reducing the size of the loans.

But as part of these deals, the mortgages are being refinanced through lenders that work with government agencies like the Federal Housing Administration. This enables the funds to pocket sizable profits by reselling new, government-insured loans to other federal agencies, which then bundle the mortgages into securities for sale to investors.

HOUSTON — LyondellBasell Industries said Saturday Reliance Industries offered to acquire a controlling interest in the beleaguered chemical company, which is under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

LyondellBasell declined to disclose the value of the cash offer. India-based Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reliance's offer "represents a potential alternative to the initial plan of reorganization," LyondellBasell said, and it "will continue to work with all parties to design an approach that maximizes value for the company's creditors."

The Internal Revenue Service is giving tax rebates to first-time buyers, and soon to move-up buyers, in a program beset by accusations of fraud. And the government agency that issues mortgage insurance, the Federal Housing Administration, is underwriting loans at quadruple the rate of three years ago even as its reserves to cover defaults are dwindling. On Thursday, the Mortgage Bankers Association said more than one in six F.H.A. borrowers was behind on payments.

Florida banking regulators on Friday shut down Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, marking the 124th U.S. bank to succumb this year to the struggling economy and rising loan defaults.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the small bank in Fort Myers, Fla., with $79.7 million in assets and $76.7 million in deposits.

Central Bank, based in Stillwater, Minn., agreed to assume the deposits and assets of Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida. The failed bank's sole branch will reopen Monday as a branch of Central Bank. In addition, the FDIC and Central Bank agreed to share losses on roughly $61 million of Commerce Bank's loans and other assets.

Reliance Industries Ltd., the giant Indian energy and materials company, made a nonbinding cash offer to take a controlling interest in LyondellBasell Industries when the chemical maker exits bankruptcy, LyondellBasell said Saturday.

The amount of the offer made by Reliance, India's largest company, wasn't disclosed. But if a deal is struck, it would create a global energy and chemicals powerhouse. Before filing for bankruptcy in January, LyondellBasell, the world's third-largest chemicals company, posted $50.7 billion in annual sales; Reliance brings in more than $28 billion a year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The auction for Nortel Network's optical networking and carrier ethernet business went into a second day on Saturday, after Ciena (CIEN.O) called for a break in the auction late on Friday, two sources said.

Last month Nortel Networks Corp, the bankrupt Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, said that Ciena's cash-and-stock bid, worth some $526 million, would be the stalking horse offer for these assets.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp.’s planned $7.4 billionpurchase of Sun Microsystems Inc. may be blocked by EuropeanUnion regulators because of concerns Oracle might be able toeliminate Sun’s MySQL database product as a competitor,according to an EU document.

Oracle would have “total control” over MySQL’s sourcecode and intellectual property, the European Commission said ina document obtained by Bloomberg News. Oracle could change theterms of MySQL’s open-source licenses, restricting the abilityof other companies to develop competing products.

WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year from 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.

The group, which surveyed 1,350 households, said there will be about 33.2 million people traveling by car this year - a 2.1 percent increase from last year.

But there will be a 6.7 percent decrease in the number of air travelers, totaling 2.3 million this year, continuing a decade-long decline of Thanksgiving air travel.

CHICAGO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - LyondellBasell said on Saturdayit had received a nonbinding cash offer from Indian energygiant Reliance Industries (RELI.BO) to acquire a controllinginterest in the company.

Petrochemicals firm LyondellBasell [ACCEIN.UL] said in astatement that the offer represented a potential alternative toits previously filed reorganization plan to emerge from Chapter11 bankruptcy.

LyondellBasell did not say how much the offer was for.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Hershey Co.’s controlling trustwants the candy company to make a $17 billion bid for Britishconfectioner Cadbury Plc, the Wall Street Journal reported,citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

The offer would trump Kraft Foods Inc.’s bid for Cadburyand have a higher cash component, the newspaper reported. In onescenario under discussion, Hershey would contribute at least $10billion in cash and $2 billion in new Hershey shares, theJournal said yesterday. The bid wouldn’t be ready for at leasttwo weeks, the paper said.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Reliance Industries Ltd., India’smost valuable company, said it made a preliminary cash offer tobuy a controlling stake in LyondellBasell Industries once thepetrochemicals and fuels company emerges from bankruptcy. Theoffer amount was not disclosed.

The offer is “subject to customary conditions includingconduct of due diligence, documentation and receipt ofsufficient creditor support,” Mumbai-based Reliance said in ane-mailed statement today.