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MARCO WERMAN: Excuse me. Excuse me, everybody. Excuse me for interrupting your delicious meal. I'm afraid your high-end table setting has an uncertain future. Last month, the Irish business group Waterford Wedgwood collapsed. The company was the product of a merger between Ireland's Waterford Glass Limited and the English china company Wedgwood. Well now it seems Waterford's Crystal and Wedgwood's China will be parting ways. And I know. I know. Wait a second. One Irish lawmaker claims that an American private equity firm is bidding to buy Waterford Crystal. It intends to keep some of the glass-making operations in Ireland. Another New York-based investment group reportedly wants to acquire the Waterford brand, too. But it would move all production to lower-cost Eastern Europe. There's also a rescue plan in the offing for Wedgwood china. The plan comes from the 8th generation descendants of Josiah Wedgwood, the Englishman who founded the firm in 1759. His descendants are trying to raise enough cash to buy the failed company and get it going again, but they too are investigating help from overseas. The Wedgwood family is talking with international investors, including some from the Middle East and Asia. And now you can go on with the rest of your meal... I think dessert is next.

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