Shelby’s name is probably most associated with the Cobra, a car that combined a lightweight British racecar body with a powerful Ford V8 engine. He is also known for the Shelby line of Ford Mustang-based performance cars.

The cause of his death has not been released, according to a statement from the auto company Shelby American.

Despite a fascination with speed and power, Shelby was known for his folksy, laid-back personal style. Born in Leesburg, Texas, in 1923, Shelby was an aviator during World War II. After the war, he worked in a chicken farm, ran a dump truck company and also found time to run a sports car dealership, according to Shelby American.

It was in the dealership that Shelby first began building his own cars.

His first race was in 1952 in a 1932 Ford. Shelby then abandoned chicken farming and moved on to automobiles as a full-time career.

As a racer he won a three national sports car championships in the United States and the LeMans 24 hour race in Europe. He set land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats twice.

A heart condition forced Shelby to give up his racing career in 1960. He then turned to racecar design and manufacturing.

He’s best known for high horsepower cars. In 1962, he formed Shelby American to make the Cobra. The car was debuted at the 1962 New York Auto Show.

Shelby also helped develop the Ford GT40 racecar low interest rate personal loans. With the GT40 and the Cobra Shelby became the only man to win LeMans as a driver, team owner and automaker.

Shelby is also well known for helping create a series of Ford Mustang-based Shelby cars.

During the 1980s he worked with Chrysler to create performance versions of otherwise underwhelming Chrysler products. Among those was the Dodge Omni GLH-S, a compact hatchback that was said to be one of Shelby’s favorite cars. (GLH allegedly stood for "Goes Like Hell.")

He also worked on development of the Dodge Viper while with Chrysler.

Today, classic Shelby Mustangs can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars while original Cobras can be worth, in some cases, millions, according to Hagerty Insurance.

A Shelby Cobra sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction in 2007 for $5.5 million.

That car was built for Shelby’s own personal use. It was identical to one built for the comedian Bill Cosby. Cosby, who likes to drive Ferraris, was so intimidated by the Cobra he sold it back to Shelby.

In 2005, he restarted his relationship with Ford Motor Co (, Fortune 500). That has led to the reintroduction of Shelby Mustangs including models built by Ford as well as cars built by Shelby American.

During his last two decades, Shelby had both heart and kidney transplants. He continued to be active in the management of his companies and charitable foundations, according to a statement form Shelby American. 

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But if you are a caretaker type of mom, make sure you also realize there’s a cost beyond the obvious.

Besides the sacrifices you make daily for your family, you are likely to be making a significant dent in your financial security. Studies show women sacrifice lifelong earnings, pension benefits and Social Security because they quit jobs or work part time to care for children, parents or other family members.

A 1999 study produced for the MetLife Mature Market Institute estimated that Americans lost an average of more than $600,000, including pension contributions, over a lifetime to provide care for elderly relatives and friends. The study focused on caregivers older than 45, three-quarters of whom were women.

Boston College found women who work part time earn 21 percent less per hour than people working full time. The General Accounting Office reported that half of women take unpaid leave after a pregnancy, and that a quarter quit jobs.

There’s debate about the numbers but not the concept: If you are a caretaker, you probably are giving up thousands of dollars, because each raise you get is based on your previous base pay, Social Security benefits are affected by a person’s job history, and pension benefits also are related to your job and pay.

I am not suggesting you change your lifestyle, but knowing the consequences might help you plan and mitigate the impact.

“Women are always behind because of caretaking,” said Tatjana Meschede, researcher for the Institute on Assets and Social Policy. “It’s a real problem.”

The Social Security Administration reports that, in 2010, women 65 and older received average annual Social Security income of $11,794, compared with $15,231 for men. As women outlive men, they often have inadequate retirement savings after losing husbands.

“Almost half of single women over the age of 65 face the real crisis of outliving their financial resources,” Meschede said.

If working, save aggressively every year so that if you take time away later, you have money growing in a 401(k) or IRA. Do not take loans from a 401(k), and realize that investing about $25 a week at age 20 can get you close to $1 million by retirement time. But with no savings at 45, you’ll need to invest about $300 weekly to accumulate about $1 million.

As a rule of thumb, you and a spouse should save 10 percent of pay each year. If you have an employer match for a 401(k), the combination of your pay and the match can equal 10 percent of your pay.

If you aren’t working and a spouse is working, your spouse can open an IRA or Roth IRA for you, depositing as much as $5,000 a year, or $6,000 if you are 50 or over. He may be allowed to open an IRA or Roth IRA for himself, too. Find the contribution and deduction rules at tinyurl.com/iracontributionrules.

Rather than simply hoping for the best, run a calculation to see whether you are on course to have enough saved by retirement. Try the easy “ballpark estimate” calculator at choosetosave.org.

Running a budget helps you identify savings. Visit tinyurl.com/runabudget. A budget will show you your expenses clearly so you make sure, before retiring, that your savings cover them.

A rule of thumb for retirement spending says to remove only 4 percent of your savings the first year of retirement and increase it each year for inflation. If you remove more, you risk running out of money. Also, the rule assumes you invest in a combination of stocks and bonds and earn about 6 percent on your money. Try this calculator: tinyurl.com/planningcalculator.

Invest rather than just save. Money in a savings account won’t grow enough to cover retirement needs. If you don’t know how to invest, consider a “target date fund” or a “balanced fund” that blend stocks and bonds together. If your husband invests for you, know what he’s doing so you aren’t lost if he dies.

To increase the amount of money you will have in retirement, delay taking Social Security. This is especially important for a working spouse. Every year that a person delays retirement up to age 70 increases Social Security by about 8 percent.

Consider buying long-term care insurance in your 50s, so you can get care at home as a widow. Men tend to rely on spouses. Widows won’t have that help.

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A growing number of users are accessing Facebook on mobile devices, where the company doesn’t "generate any meaningful revenue." Facebook’s tally of daily active users is increasing faster than the number of ads served.

Read: Missed revenue opportunity.

Facebook, which filed in February for an initial public offering that is expected to take place next week, released the details in an update to its regulatory paperwork. Facebook had already warned potential investors about its lack of mobile monetization, but the stats on users’ ramped-up mobile access were new.

About 488 million monthly active users accessed Facebook’s mobile products in March.

That’s a huge chunk of the 901 million global active users Facebook currently has, and it’s a number that’s growing fast. Facebook said it topped 500 million active mobile users in just the first three weeks of April. (It hasn’t yet released its full-month stats for April.)

Facebook wasn’t built with mobile in mind — it was created in 2004, after all — and it’s been slow to develop device-optimized apps. Facebook for the Apple (, Fortune 500) iPad wasn’t released until October 2011, a full year and a half after the iPad debuted. Facebook’s delay gave third-party apps a chance to jump in.

In early 2012, Facebook introduced "sponsored stories" on its mobile apps, a move aimed at helping it generate revenue on a platform other than the Web payday loans online.

Related story: Facebook employees face $4 billion tax bite

Critics say that’s too little, too late. Advertising accounted for 85% of Facebook’s total 2011 revenue, or almost $3.2 billion. To date, most of Facebook’s ads have been display ads: banners, images and other graphics. Ignoring mobile for so long feels like an oversight.

Now that Facebook is finally working on mobile products, the all-important next step — monetization — is slow going.

Wednesday’s filing wasn’t the first time Facebook had to address criticism about its slow migration to mobile.

During a private kickoff event for Facebook’s pre-IPO road show earlier this week, investors spent a Q&A session grilling execs on when Facebook will make money on mobile. Zuckerberg admitted that his company is having trouble charting its growth in mobile and tracking its user base.

In a Web version of the road show, which Facebook made publicly available, CFO David Ebersman said the company is in a "heavy investment" phase, and acknowledged that "mobile use of Facebook is critical to long-term user engagement."

Mobile advertising is still in its early days, Ebersman said, and the space is lacking in innovation.

"Expect us to invest heavily in mobile," he said. "Even if mobile monetization is uncertain and will take time."

As part of that investment, Facebook just shelled out $1 billion in cash and stock in a high-profile deal to buy mobile startup Instagram. 

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The company’s net loss equaled 40 cents a share compared with a loss of $4.5 million, or 2 cents a share, for the same quarter last year.

Sales declined by almost a third to $519.2 million, O’Fallon, Mo.-based MEMC said.

Ahmad Chatila, MEMC’s chief executive, said the company believes the semiconductor market has begun to turn. Already, “we are seeing improved order volumes and firmer pricing,” he said.

Chatila said a reorganization of MEMC’s solar business, including a 20 percent cut in its workforce and plans to scale back output of polysilicon, the primary material in solar wafers, remains on track.

MEMC’s solar wafer sales fell sharply, partly on a strategic decision to halt most sales to external customers and use most of its inventory to supply its own solar energy development.

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The company posted $3.25 billion in earnings, translating to $1,966 per Class A share, compared with $1.51 billion in the first quarter of last year.

Operating earnings, which exclude some investment and derivative gains, were $1,615 a share, coming up short of the $1,780 prediction from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Berkshire (, Fortune 500) owns more than 80 companies, including insurer Geico, chemical company Lubrizol, railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe and MidAmerican Energy.

The firm also holds stakes in companies like Bank of America (, Fortune 500), Kraft Foods (, Fortune 500) and Johnson & Johnson (, Fortune 500), and it surprised some observers last year with a foray into the tech world, buying shares of Intel (, Fortune 500), IBM (, Fortune 500) and DirecTV (, Fortune 500).

Berkshire booked gains from its insurance businesses, after the sector was battered early last year by disasters including the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The firm’s manufacturing, service and retail businesses were also a source of strength, as were its derivatives bets.

Buffett ups tech holdings

Class A shares closed at $121,950 Friday, while Class B () shares finished at $80.94. Class B shares slipped 0.5% in after-hours trading.

Berkshire’s shareholders will gather in Nebraska on Saturday for the company’s annual meeting, where the so-called Oracle of Omaha will likely face questions about his health and his succession plans.

In a letter to shareholders last month, Buffett disclosed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, though the 81-year-old claimed the condition "is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way online payday loans." Additional tests, he added, didn’t reveal incidence of cancer anywhere else in his body.

Buffett has yet to publicly reveal a succession plan, though he says he has already informed Berkshire’s board about his preferred candidates. Upon his departure, Buffett’s job will be divided between a CEO in charge of operations and one or more executives in charge of investments.

Buffett’s blue-chip stock picks

Buffett has said that two investment managers who recently joined the company, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, "will be handling a few billion dollars in 2012, but they have the brains, judgment and character to manage our entire portfolio" when he and Berkshire vice chairman Charlie Munger are no longer running the company.

Ajit Jain, who heads the firm’s reinsurance business, has been mentioned by Berkshire-watchers as a possible successor on the operations side.

Buffett’s son, Howard, is in line to follow as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway upon his father’s death, though Howard will not be involved in strategy or day-to-day decisions.

Berkshire shares had a rare down year in 2011, slipping 4.7%, even as the broader market stayed mostly flat. Over the past two decades, the company’s stock has gained more than thirteen-fold, while the S&P 500 Index is up about three-fold. 

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Europe

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke did not give an exact time on when Black was released and said he didn’t have any other details.

Black, whose empire once included the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London, The Jerusalem Post and small papers across the U.S. and Canada, had returned to prison last September to finish serving his sentence.

U.S. immigration officials said they had custody over Black, who doesn’t have American citizenship. Black is facing deportation and could travel to either Canada or Britain.

“I can confirm that he’s in (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody,” said bureau spokesman Nestor Yglesias He would not say where Black was headed, citing privacy laws.

A former member of the British House of Lords, he had been sentenced to more than six years in prison after his 2007 conviction in Chicago, but had then been released on bail two years later to pursue an appeal that was partially successful. A judge reduced his sentence to three years and he returned to prison last September. With time off for good behavior, he has completed his sentence.

Black’s big chance to quash his convictions arose in June 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court sharply curtailed the disputed “honest services” laws that underpinned part of the case against him.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago tossed out two of Black’s fraud convictions last year, citing that landmark ruling. But it said one conviction for fraud and one for obstruction of justice were not affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling. The fraud conviction, the judges concluded, involved Black and others taking $600,000 and had nothing to do with honest services. It was, they asserted, straightforward theft.

Black _ who received the title of Lord Black of Crossharbour _ was known for a grand lifestyle, including a $62,000 birthday party for his wife, a swanky apartment on Park Avenue in New York and a trip to the island of Bora Bora.

Black’s three-month trial drew international attention, heightened by his sometimes haughty comments. When shareholders grumbled about the cost of the Bora Bora trip, he wrote a memo saying: “I’m not prepared to re-enact the French revolutionary renunciation of the rights of the nobility.”

At the core of the honest-services charges against Black was his strategy, starting in 1998, of selling off the bulk of the small community papers, which were published in smaller cities across the United States and Canada.

Black and other Hollinger executives received millions of dollars in payments from the companies that bought the community papers in return for promises that they would not return to compete with the new owners.

Prosecutors said the executives pocketed the money, which they said belonged to shareholders, without telling Hollinger’s board of directors.

At his resentencing hearing last year, several inmates wrote letters to the judge saying Black had changed their lives through lectures he gave on writing, history, economics and other subjects. But one prison employee claimed in an affidavit that Black had arranged for inmates _ “acting like servants” _ to iron his clothes, mop his floor and perform other chores. Another employee told her Black once insisted she address him as “Lord Black.”

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The Gulf emirate’s state shipbuilding division Drydocks World said in a statement sent Thursday it has signed on with a Swiss company to become the sole Middle East construction contractor of the futuristic hotels.

Switzerland’s BIG InvestConsult signed the deal on behalf of partner Deep Ocean Technology, which has developed plans for disc-shaped buildings that include underwater and above-water components free 3-in-1 credit report.

Financial terms for the deal, signed Wednesday, were not disclosed. Drydocks did not say where or when the first hotels would be built.

A previously announced underwater hotel project planned for Dubai several years ago was never built.

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