Hostess Sells Twinkies to Investment Firms: Hot Trends

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include Twinkies after Hostess Brands agreed to sell its snack products to two investment firms in a $410 million deal.

The new owners of products like Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and Sno Balls will be Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. The firms will acquire five Hostess factories, which they hope to restart in time to have Hostess snacks back on store shelves by this summer. Production of Twinkies and their counterparts was stopped nearly four months ago.

Also see: Twinkies Saved! >>

Hostess announced in November that its operations would be coming to a halt after it was unable to reach a deal with its bakers' union.

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Boeing (BA) is trending as the Federal Aviation Administration approved the airline maker's plan to fix the lithium-ion battery issue that has plagued its 787 Dreamliner fleet.

Boeing now has the green light to redesign the eight-cell batteries to reduce risk of a short-circuit that could lead to fire. The company also plans to better insulate the battery's cells and include a fire-proof shell around the battery, as well as a venting system for smoke in case of fire.

The FAA also said it will allow Boeing to test flights for two aircraft once their batteries are redesigned. It offered no estimate for when the planes would be allowed to fly passengers again.

The administration grounded the Dreamliner fleet on Jan. 16, after a battery fire occurred on board a parked 787 and another faulty battery forced a 787 to make an emergency landing.

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H&R Block (HRB) is another popular search. The IRS revealed that a filing error on behalf of the tax preparation firm could delay about 600,000 tax returns for up to six weeks.

The IRS said the error involved form 8863, which is used to qualify for student tax credit. H&R Block acknowledged the error, attributing it to its software.

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