Treasury Plans $18 Billion AIG Stock Offer: Hot Trends

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include American International Group(AIG) as the U.S. Treasury plans an $18 billion stock offering of the insurer, which is most of the Treasury's stake.

The Treasury plans to sell the stake this month. When it does, the move will take the government's stake in AIG to 20% from 53%, making the government a minority investor in the company for the first time since 2008, when it rescued AIG during the financial crisis.

AIG plans to buy up to $5 billion of the offering. Upon the sale, the insurer will now fall under regulation as a savings and loan holding company.

The move comes as the government has been removing itself from financial crisis programs ahead of the presidential election, though the Treasury claims the decision was not connected to the election.

Glencore is trending as the commodities trader confirmed its increased bid for Xstrata, and said its most recent offer would be its final one.

Glencore's new bid is 3.05 new shares for every Xstrata share, up from 2.8. The previous offer had faced opposition from Xstrata shareholders -- namely, Qatar Holding.

Glencore also revised the offer since Friday by stipulating now that Xstrata CEO Mick Davis can lead the combined company for six months before Glencore chief executive Ivan Glasenberg takes over. Glencore originally wanted Glasenberg to lead the company from the beginning.

Xstrata shareholders are reviewing the offer and have until Sept. 24 to indicate whether they intend to put the offer to a vote.

Spotify is another popular search. The music streaming app may soon be available in an online browser version.

According to reports, the new version would change the need for users to download Spotify software onto their desktops. Currently, Spotify lets users listen to an unlimited amount of songs for free with ads, after downloading its software. Users can also pay $10 per month to listen to songs free of ads.

The redesign would make Spotify more accessible to users who would be able to use the service and their playlists on whatever computer they log onto, rather than having to download the program again.

Spotify launched in October 2008. It has roughly 15 million users, including 4 million paying customers.