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While the summer has been settling down a bit since the Weekenders carnage, there still seem to be some hot topics that just seem to re-shape themselves. USANA started off the summer with a push by its Chairman and then CEO, Dr. Myron Wentz and his holdings Co, Gull Holdings, to the company private. After two and half attempts a “low-ball bids”, Wentz and Co appeared to put their tail between their legs and move on. Not so fast. As we reported this week, USANA’s stock (USNA) had a truly amazing run up 38% giving Wentz and Co a $160m gain on paper. The strategy of low-balling an offer only to have an independent counsel say it was way too low was brilliant. It also helped that USANA settled its difference with Barry Minkow who seems to have agreed to just disappear and leave USANA alone - although terms of the “settlement” were never released.

We had the chance to sit down with legendary network marketer, Dwayne Dyer of XanGo. His story of success is truly one of mythical proportions having a network of over 1 million people around the world! He gave us some pretty good insight into how he built his organization and the power of XanGo which has put Mangosteen on the map.

There were also some interesting deals announced this week. Nu Skin announced a research partnership with Toyo Bio-Pharma. On paper, this is a very strong deal for both companies given Nu Skin’s distribution breadth and Toyo’s global dominance of the process of fermentation and culturing all natural ingredients into cosmetics products.

Another deal was announced which partnered EcoQuest with the American Lung Association. The new relationship stems from Eqcoquest’s unveiling of its new air purification system called “Gemini” - which is the company’s first indoor filtration product that has gotten some pretty rave reviews. If you have any issues with allergies in your home, this is one product yous hould seriously consider.

In keeping with this weeks deals, Pureworks merged with Youngevity which while it was a bit of a surprise to us, does seem to make sense. The value to Pureworks is the expansion of their health and wellness products to now include a complete line of hand, body and home sanitizers. The deal definitely makes sense and can only be good news for the distributors of both companies which now have more products to sell with a larger number of people selling them.

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Pureworks - a company that makes a complete line of hand, body and home sanitizer products - has just announced that they will complete a merger with Youngevity which will go into effect sometime in August. Youngevity has a complete line of health and wellness products, offering over 250 products through a network of independent distributors.

Pureworks president Mark Franks made the announcement last week. Youngevity has been around for 5 years, and while they have over 250 health care products available, they do not currently have a hand sanitizer. That is, until now.

Pureworks, which was founded in 2002, will be a great addition to the Youngevity family. Pureworks currently holds a patent for their specially formulated hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer contains Benzethonium Chloride which is a positively charged formula that does not get absorbed into the skin. Instead, it covers the skin and forms a sort of barrier that can provide protection for hours. Pureworks says that their product is 100% percent effective against a large variety of bacteria, and Benzethonium Chloride has even been shown to be extremely effective in killing viral germs.

Along with hand sanitizer, Pureworks will also bring several other products into the partnership including anti-bacterial lotions, sprays and foams, body soaps, and hard surface sanitizers.

This will be a great opportunity for both sides. For Pureworks, it will increase the distribution potential of their products by utilizing the independent consultants already working for Youngevity, and for Youngevity, it is a great addition to their already impressive line of products.

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