Google is preparing to counter Apple in online video - August 30, 2010

Google and Apple do not agree no further time. Already competitors in the mobile and advertising, they prepare to pay back the video on demand (VOD). According to information from the Financial Times, Google "is currently negotiating with major Hollywood studios to launch a video service fee to the card by the end of 2010 the United States. With this enhanced client service, Google would be "neck-and-neck competition with Apple to dominate the digital distribution of films and TV content," the newspaper said.

At Google, renting movies is not entirely new. YouTube has since the beginning of the year. But the catalog is currently comprised mainly of works by independent studios, which attract few users. It should be completed by this time the great successes of the cinema, for rent as they are released on DVD.According to the Financial Times, Hollywood would have been seduced by the arguments of Google, which has a substantial pool of hearing.

Negotiations "in emergency"

These negotiations, which ran for several months, are now conducted "in emergency", as competition increases in the United States. The DVD rental company Netflix has completely redesigned its online service, through a monthly subscription. For its part, Hulu has benefited from the support of its shareholders Disney, News Corp. and NBC Universal to become the number two online video in number of visitors, behind YouTube. The site, which offers since its launch films and series for free, advertising, launched in August a section fee.

Google's main rival in the video rental property remains yet Apple.On Wednesday, Steve Jobs is expected to announce the arrival of television shows on iTunes for rent payday advance. Each episode would be 99 cents suggested by the American press, or the same price as a piece of music, and could be viewed for 24 hours. Until then, Apple proposed that these series as sales, two or three times more expensive. The choice of location, most popular, was reserved for movies.

For both IT groups, the issue is not simply to increase their income with online video, but also to make their devices more attractive to take a position in the salons. The iTunes videos are playable on Mac and PC, iPod, iPhone and iPad. A new version of Apple TV, the box that connects to televisions, is also in preparation.In front, Google is also preparing a range of appliances connected to TVs, with the help of Sony and Logitech.

"It's hard to convince the French suppliers'

According to the Financial Times, the Google service "would probably be launched first in the United States before being extended gradually to other countries. Negotiations abroad take effect in time. Apple has more than two years before proposing, in April, a few thousand movies for sale and rent in France.

Unlike music, Internet rights are often held by television stations and local media. "By outsourcing their content to Apple channels lose the freedom to set their prices and the relationship with their customers.Difficult to convince the French suppliers, "said Frederic Sitterlé, former Director of New Media and founder of the Figaro service VOD MySkreen independent. Conservative channels have preferred to have their VOD services. While discussing the opening of a joint French platform.

Personal loans like these have to be repaid back within a time span of 15-20 days. This period can be extended a bit in case of emergency.

German regions support Opel - June 11, 2010

The soap opera twists rescue Opel has caused a new skirmish in the German government between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. On Wednesday evening, the conservative chancellor, Angela Merkel, had repudiated his Liberal minister of Economy, Rainer Brüderl, which had ruled against the granting of state aid to troubled German manufacturer. On Thursday, after a meeting at the chancery, the four host plants Opel Länder have pledged to help the manufacturer.

"The four prime ministers have decided to make available to the company for discussions," said the boss of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Rüttgers, after the meeting. Rüttgers refused to discuss figures.However, the states concerned should increase the amount of their participation in the recovery plan of Opel to save jobs related to les sites of production established on their territory.

Public support of 1.1 billion euros, denied Wednesday Brüderl, should be financed by up to 46% by the federal government, followed by Hesse (29.19%), the North-Rhine- Westphalia (7.11%), Rhineland-Palatinate (5.61%) and Thuringia (2.47%). The Board of Opel has warned that without public support, the parent company, General Motors could eliminate more jobs in Germany as the 4000 dismissal under the current restructuring plan.

Consolidation of the range

Opel employs approximately 25,000 employees in Germany. The factories in Bochum, Eisenach and Kaiserslautern are threatened with closure teletrek No payday advance.Only the maintenance of the center of research and development of Rüsselsheim is guaranteed.

Brüderl had justified its rejection of the application for public assistance from General Motors for its European subsidiary in finding that GM had enough funds to help recover Opel. He made his decision after a meeting of a committee that could not reach a common position after reviewing the request for assistance. GM plans to spend 1.9 billion euros to boost Opel, currently in deficit. The restructuring program includes a 20% capacity of Opel and an overhaul of the range by 2014.

The Liberals had reluctantly accepted, on weekends, a package of measures to save 80 billion euros by 2014 in the federal budget.By refusing the assistance of 1.1 billion, which would have preferred, he said, a builder on the other, the minister wanted to show that liberal ideas were not dead.

However, Angela Merkel warned that Berlin had "not heard the last word in the file Opel" thereby alienating Brüderl, who also refused to grant guarantees for loans to Opel in Europe. The Chancellor, who seeks to preserve its image as a protective mother of the nation, convened on Thursday, meeting with government leaders of regional states concerned to encourage them to increase their participation to fill the hole left after the withdrawal of funds Federal.

Tax havens: Ile-de-France attack - June 3, 2010

This is an unprecedented initiative in the world. For the first time, a local authority, Ile-de-France, will require full transparency of banks and other financial institutions with whom she wants to work, and this in the context of the fight against tax havens. More specifically, the regional council asked each year to its financial partners an overview of their activities and their relationship with the 18 non-cooperative states listed by the government. So far, only the city of Helsinki had thought about such an initiative without ever materialize.This election promise, launched by Europe Ecologie then taken up by the regional president Jean-Paul Huchon, was confirmed Wednesday, and will vote at the next plenary session of June 17

The resolution provides that before proceeding with financial institutions to borrow money or to arrange a bond issue, the Regional Council will ask them to clarify their relationships with states that refuse to sign agreements of transparency and exchange of information.The first Vice-President of the Regional Council of Marie-Pierre Gontrie (SP) said that "if some banks are choosing to continue their activities in these countries, these items are taken into account in our decision," No fax pay day loans .

The idea could swarm

The regional council "will reserve the right to modify and extend this mechanism, each year, given a report monitoring its application," explains Cecile Duflot, President of European Group Ecology and Robert Leo, new regional adviser Greens -EE and former CEO of Caisse des Depots et Consignations."These elements constitute a criterion for the decision to continue or begin to use the services of these banks," they said.

During the campaign, regional, Cecile Duflot was particularly criticized for BNP Paribas' main lender of the regional council ", to" work in many tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Jersey and Guernsey and Hong Kong. "

This innovative device could make small: other regions have expressed interest as the Champagne-Ardenne, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur or the Midi-Pyrénées.

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Bluefin tuna: tension in the Mediterranean - May 15, 2010

The French fleet of purse seiners in the Mediterranean ready to run the campaign the smallest in its history. From midnight Saturday, they have thirty days to collect more than 1 700 tonnes of bluefin tuna, cons 3000 tonnes in 2009 and 4500 tonnes in 2008.

Since Wednesday, the departure of vessels, mainly from the port of Sete, carried out under tension after the blockade organized by Greenpeace in the port of Frontignan (H?rault). "Their action is in response to concerns especially media and certainly not economic or environmental. Scientific reports write black on white that the bluefin tuna population is being rebuilt. And this year, the owners have made a huge effort to fit in the strictly legal framework enacted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).Fishermen are tired of being stigmatized as exterminators and thieves, "said Bertrand Wendling, director general of the fishing cooperative S?te (Sathoan). This year, fishermen in the Eastern Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean should not exceed 13 500 tonnes of sampling with equal quotas between Spain, Italy and France.

1500 affected families

The decision to reduce the fleet in 2010 (17 ships against 28 in 2009 and 32 in 2008) was dictated by a concern for profitability and demonstrate the willingness of fishermen. "Every fishing boat could therefore 100 tonnes this year, and we need a sample of 130-140 tons to balance expenses and depreciation. The financial sacrifice is a bet on the future.Because we believe the future of the bluefin tuna fishery, "said Jean-Marie Avallone, owner S?te history of tuna, which bind only three of its four boats manufactured in France since 2002 in the campaign, on board a auditor accredited by ICCAT.

For the weapons of Rosina Arthur Marseille, the sacrifice is even more eloquent: a four tuna catch. "The French fishermen from Mediterranean will be kept under strict surveillance for this campaign. By Will it be the same for illegal fishing vessels that will continue to take, without control, limitation or quota? "Annoyed Henry Square, the National Committee of Fisheries. The stakes are high for Mediterranean ports: "1500 families live in this fishery," according to Bertrand Wendling.This, despite the reduction of the "wing" and the price of tuna leveled between 5 and 8 euros per kilo (out of the boat).

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L'Occitane at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange - April 26, 2010

The company, which sells cosmetics and herbal Provence, today launched an offer reserved for the Asian market, covering 25% of its capital, half through a capital increase. She hopes to raise 530 million euros as well. The sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. should attend to the tune of 50 million dollars. L'Occitane operates 1,517 stores worldwide and plans to open 650 new in the five years. Reinold Geiger, discreet Austrian businessman, bought the company in 1996. It explains the objectives of this operation.

LE FIGARO. – Why did you finally decided to get an IPO?

Reinold Geiger. – This is the beginning of a new stage. We had a mini-LBO (leveraged buyout, management buyout leveraged) three years ago by buying 13% of our shares to Clarins and 12% to a private investor.Since then, it seemed that the best solution for us was to develop an IPO. It is also a way of giving a market value of the holding company, many employees are shareholders. I will keep a majority stake, or about 52%.

Why Hong Kong?

We sell more in Asia than in Europe and the U.S. together and that's where we are going as we develop. Being listed on Hong Kong will help increase the awareness of society in the region, very important factor to attract consumers. When we arrived in 1997 in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it did not work at all, while in New York where we opened at the same time we exceed our targets. Our auditors have recommended after three years of closing our operations in Asia! But we persevered, developed the image of the brand and, after three to four years, it exploded.Today, in the minds of Asian consumers, we are comparable to luxury brands that I dare not mention the names for fear of seeming pretentious. All our products continue to be manufactured in France because we sell Provence. We will invest 50 million euros in our production sites.

What are your most important markets?

Until now, this is Japan, with 23% of turnover and over 70 stores. Despite the economic crisis, young people continue to consume and we are among the leading imported brands in the country. In Hong Kong, we have 16 stores that work very well. In China, the copiers were installed before us, with hundreds of stores with their signs "Occitown" and "Camenae.It has been very excited at first but the Chinese do not understand our reaction: they explained that it was an honor to be copied! We took two years to mount a 100% subsidiary, which manages more than 40 stores. We will accelerate. China has a potential of 200 to 300 stores eventually. We are also in Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The United States is our second largest market, with 15% of sales and 170 stores. In Europe, France and the United Kingdom account for 19% of our worldwide sales.

What is your growth potential?

Ten years ago, during an interview in Le Figaro asked me how many shops I have thought ten years later. I said 1000 on a whim – I was 50 at the time! Today we have 1517 in the world. We open about 100 per year.In the year ending March 2009, we achieved a turnover of 537 million euros, up more than 30%. In late December 2009, we were up 14% despite the crisis. We can certainly consider doubling the number of stores worldwide over the medium term. Moreover, we can acquire new brands to develop three or four countries where we operate. We have acquired the cosmetics Melvita there a year and a half and we have already opened in Croatia, Hong Kong and soon in the United States.

With this IPO, you will finally lift the veil on your profitability.

We develop a net profit of more than 10% of turnover.

Wall Street has assembled a few more points - April 14, 2010

The U.S. stock markets have recently experienced six consecutive weeks of increase continues its momentum. The Dow Jones certainly opened down 0.07% and the Nasdaq 100 0.11%, but the disappointment of Alcoa's results did not last.

At closing, the indices respectively closed up 0.12% at 11,019 points – allowing it to bind a new top-most since September 2008 – and 0.33% at 2466 points. The S & P 500 just to cross the 1,200 points, and insicrit an increase of 0.07% to 1197 points.

On Monday, the Dow Jones gleaned 0.08% to increase the threshold highly symbolic 11 000 points for the first time since September 2008.

The eyes are now riveted on the release of Intel's after-hours trade, which will sign a series of results from technology stocks.

The euro steadied against the dollar Tuesday, the foreign exchange market remaining cautious vis-?-vis the funding prospects of Greece, despite strong demand for Treasury bill issuance Greek, and after jumping through the day the announcement of details of rescue plan for Greece.

Oil continued to fall

Side oil, black gold connects its fifth session of declines, traders are concerned about the continuing rise in oil stocks in the United States.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), a barrel of light sweet crude for May delivery finished at 84.05 dollars, down 29 cents from the previous day.The courses, which had exceeded $ 87 last Tuesday in New York for the first time in a year and a half, have lost about three dollars in five sessions.

The U.S. Department of Energy shall broadcast Wednesday's weekly statistics on trends in U.S. oil reserves, and analysts expect the announcement of an eleventh consecutive week of increase in crude inventories.

Palm loses ground after a flight

The week will also be crucial for the U.S. markets with the opening ball of the quarterly results. As usual, the aluminum giant Alcoa (-1.58% to 14.34 dollars) which gave the start of the season publications, Monday after the market closes. The U.S. producer of aluminum remained in the red in the first quarter, however, divided more than double its loss a year.Alcoa recorded a net loss after minority interests of 201 million over the first three months of the year, against a deficit of $ 497 million a year earlier.

Today, the computer chip manufacturer Intel (0.98% to 22.76 dollars) will follow. The next week will be hosted by Google's quarterly results (2.45% to 586.77 dollars), General Electric (1.33% to 18.96 dollars) or JPMorgan Chase & Co (-0, 61% to 45.86 dollars).

Always on the side of values, yesterday, the U.S. oil group ConocoPhillips (-0.52% to 55.67 U.S. dollars) has announced the sale of its Chinese Sinopec stake in Canadian oil sands project Syncrude for $ 4.65 billion dollars (3.42 billion euros).This is one of the largest investments ever made by China in North America.

The manufacturer of PDAs and mobile phones Palm (-14.67% to 5.16 dollars), would seek a buyer. Bloomberg said the investment bank Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners were commissioned to find a buyer to the manufacturer of smartphones in serious financial trouble. Action Palm and jumped over 17% Monday to the New York Stock Exchange.

The global wine market falling by 3.6% - March 31, 2010

For the first time since the beginning of this century, the global wine market declined in 2009. According to statistics released Tuesday by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), international trade reached last year's 86.1 million hectoliters (hl), a decrease of 3.6% compared to 2008. "Spared so far by the economic crisis, the global wine market marks a regression in 2009, mainly due to significant declines in demand in major producing countries, consumers and importers," said Federico Castellucci, Director General OIV.

In detail, countries like France, the world for drinking and two for production behind Italy, have seen their demand down by 2.9% and 6.4%. In Europe, Spain, which recorded the largest decline with a fall of 11.6% of consumption (11.3 million hl 29.9 million hl cons in France).Together, these countries account for nearly 47.2% of world production and 28% of demand.

In addition to the crisis there in these countries a change in buying habits, the wine becomes a festive drink but is less consumed with every meal online payday advance. Particularly among the young, who prefer beer or other alcoholic beverages or not.

The "bulk" has the wind in its sails

Producers in these countries could catch up to date on their exports … But the application of some of the biggest importers like Germany or Great Britain (respectively 8.6% and 5.4% of world consumption), also fell last year, 2.4 % and 6%. "Again, the influence of the crisis has reduced demand in the importing countries," says Federico Castellucci.

However, the picture is not entirely black.International trade in wines still represent a significant share of world consumption of wine in 2009, or 36.4%. "This means that more than 3 bottles and a half out of 10 are consumed outside their country of production during the year 2009," says the official. This is especially the bulk (the "Cubis") that took the wind in its sails in 2009. "A pink variety, sold in bulk, the wine of the future in terms of sales," cartoon Federico Castellucci.

Facebook passes Google in audience the United States - March 17, 2010

Revolution for Facebook. The website of social network increased for the first time before the search engine Google in court during the week of March 7 to 13 in the United States. So Facebook is the site most accessed according to a study conducted by the firm Hitwise and columns published in the Financial Times.

The home page of Facebook has represented 7.07% of U.S. Internet traffic against 7.03% for that of Google. The difference is small but very symbolic. A year ago, Facebook was only a little over 2% of visits. Google on the same period has increased very little (+ 1.03 point).

This reflects the doubling of the members of the community site (between April 2009 and February 2010) from 200 million to 400 million.To take advantage of this growth and meet the success of Facebook, Google has developed Google Buzz recently, its own community network.

Google remains the leading on all its sites

Hitwise figures only concern, however, that visits the site Google.com instant payday loans . This means that services such as Gmail, Google Maps or YouTube, which also belongs to Google, are excluded from the study. Taking into account all sites of Google, the company accounted for 11.03% of visits to U.S. websites consulted last week, against 10.98% for sites of Yahoo and 7.07% for Facebook.

U.S. Customers have spent nearly six hours and a half on Facebook cons less than two and a half hours on Google.Those around the world have spent more than five and a half hours on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook for the month of December 2009 an increase of 82% in one year according to a Nielsen study.

Although Facebook is growing, it still has some way to go to catch Google. Its turnover is estimated between 1 and 1.5 billion dollars this year (double that of 2009), instead of 23.7 billion earned by Google.

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War leaders in restaurants - March 13, 2010

It's Dallas headquarters UMIH, the Union of trades and industries of hospitality, first professional employer organization industry, which will elect its new leader Monday. Wednesday night, its president challenged Christine Pujol, locked herself in her office, located rue d'Anjou, in the eighth arrondissement of Paris. Since she refuses to leave. "I did change the lock to be able to go because I had more keys from the return of Andre Daguin late November, says the Figaro it. I'll stay here all the time it takes, because if I leave, I can come back. "

For months, the president of the UMIH is at the heart of a battle between the muscular Andre Daguin, founder of the organization in 2000. Christine Pujol had taken the presidency September 15, 2008, for a term of four years, replacing Andre Daguin.The situation quickly goes awry, escalated at the time of controversy over the (low) price reductions by restaurants after the reduction in VAT in the sector, and now rule in court. "Ms. Pujol was revoked in the presidency after an extraordinary general meeting in late November, insists Andre Daguin. The court has confirmed. I assure the acting president until Monday. "

Christine Pujol denies his ouster. "The meeting allegedly was illegally deposed me, she said. On March 9, justice has not ruled on the merits. The elections will be held Monday are illegal, organized by coup plotters. Sooner or later they will be invalidated. "Why do leaves she more his office? "I'm doing this because I'm always the confederate president, insists her.I am therefore entitled to return to my office to work. "

Referred for expulsion

Christine Pujol came with "a small blanket for the night, accompanied by his closest collaborator. "On Thursday, we cut the cable television, says she. The first night, access to toilets was closed. I sleep on the floor. One of my friends brought us food from the window, with a cable. "Locally, a security guard blocking the entrance.

The few people UMIH cross the stairs are in no mood to answer questions. "Ms. Pujol? We do not know where she is. "For Andre Daguin, she became" unreasonable. " "She thinks she can become president of a union that no longer wants her, her behavior is incomprehensible.It requires about 100 to 000 UMIH for the payment of compensation and legal expenses it has committed itself cons UMIH! ".

"Financially, Christine Pujol did not ask to UMIH," replies yet his lawyer. An interim order to expel Christine Pujol has been deposited in the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris by the new leadership, embodied by Andre Daguin. The hearing is scheduled Tuesday. The day before the 102 members of the departmental UMIH have voted for one of two duets in the running for the presidency. One is led by Pierre-Paul Alfonsi, president of the federation of the Bouches-du-Rhone. Another Roland Heguy, head of the Basque Country UMIH. Neither Andre Daguin nor Christine Pujol are candidates …

Wall Street expected to open in the green - January 5, 2010

Wall Street should begin the first meeting of the year on a positive note, while Ben Bernanke and Donald Kohn, respectively president and vice-chairman of the Fed (U.S. central bank), who spoke yesterday, stressed that the rates interest should remain near zero in the months ahead.

The index futures on Dow Jones, to 14.30, taking 0.55%, to 10,422 points. The Future S & P 500 gained 0.59% identically, to 1117.3 points, and Nasdaq 100 future, less shy, wins 0.98%, to 1877 points.

Earlier this morning, Asian stock markets have evolved piecemeal. But the Nikkei in Tokyo was able to distinguish themselves, rising 1.03%, buoyed by the rebound of Japan Airlines.

This afternoon, 15 hours, will be released the ISM manufacturing index for the month of December. This statistic is on a survey of purchasing managers in manufacturing."The PMI index summary of the investigation, expected to recover, indicating that industrial activity has picked up in late last year and that conditions continue to improve, analysts said Aurel BCG. Wednesday Specifically, the ISM will release the same survey the rest of the economy.

During the rest of the week, investors will turn their attention to the minutes of the Fed in December. The debate could be sharp: the report should provide explanations on the choice of means and proposed guidance on the timing of the implementation of drainage of excess liquidity."Considered the first phase of" normalization "of monetary policy, removal of masses of liquidity injected to address the financial crisis will be interpreted as a scout for the first increase in rates," continued strategists.

Will also be peeled, the employment figures in the month of December (Thursday), following the upturn in November.The state's housing market (sales promises Tuesday) and construction costs.

Lower costs at Wal-Mart

On the values front, Alcon should be viewed as the Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis announced this morning have purchased an additional 52% stake in Alcon from food giant Nestle for $ 28.1 billion.

A follow too, Chesapeake, which has created with the French Total group a joint venture through which Total will contribute to Chesapeake for the acquisition of 25% of the portfolio of the U.S. in the Barnett Shale, a $ 800 million to finalize the deal, signed December 30.

Furthermore, the agro-food giant Kraft Foods U.S. would consider raising the hostile bid it has made since last November 9 to get their hands on Cadbury, according to the British Sunday Times.

Then, the head of Wal-Mart's Eduardo Castro-Wright, has announced its intention to reduce its costs in the Financial Times. The official estimated that the costs could be reduced by 5% to 15% in five years.