The controversy could not come at a worse. On the eve of the IPO of Facebook, advertisers have begun to question the effectiveness of ads on Facebook. These are the basic economic model of social network, which is preparing to raise more than $ 16 billion in stock.

The automaker General Motors has announced it was stopping its advertising spending on Facebook, said the Wall Street Journal. This is a budget of 10 million that will evaporate from the platform. GM plans to continue to promote its brands on Facebook, but particularly by exploiting its free services, like his fan page.

It was a risk contemplated by Facebook as a preparatory document for the IPO, filed with the policeman American markets. But it could weigh on growth prospects of Facebook, if other advertisers were to make the same choice.

But a few hours after GM's announcement, another U.S. auto giant has responded, defending the ads on Facebook. "All that matters is performance. Our Facebook ads work when they are combined, strategically, with attractive content and innovation, "the group said Ford on Twitter.

The marketing director of Ford, interviewed by Forbes magazine, believes that we should not "be considered as a simple Facebook ad network," which is broadcast on the same banner ads elsewhere. Before conceding that "it is still early days and measurement criteria are not set to 100%."  

Other observers have called on advertisers to be cautious before max out General Motors: "We do not know why GM commercials have been no results," said Tom Skotidas and founder of an agency marketing to social networks.

One explanation could be introduced by the recent change in its presentation of Facebook pages and profiles, with the launch of the Journal ("Timeline"). The counseling agencies that had established communication strategies based on Facebook tabs and landing pages have in fact seen their recommendations become obsolete overnight.

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In 2008, he cherished the hope of becoming the first secretary of the PS. But he had finally lined up behind the candidacy of Bertrand Delanoe. In 2011, he thought he could be a candidate for the Socialist primary. Then he threw in the towel, choosing to support Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then rallying Francois Hollande not without obtaining the position of campaign manager. Pierre Moscovici, 54, has learned to give up. Here he is rewarded. He is back in force to the government and assigned the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade. Certainly it does not get the Quai d'Orsay which he dreamed, Laurent Fabius was his favorite. But he inherited a portfolio to match its ambitions. And thereby in passing some disappointed, Michel Sapin in mind. "Mosco" consensual socialist, social democrat, is now a heavyweight team Ayrault, number five in protocol order.

It is he who will be at the forefront of the debt crisis. There is no shortage of assets since knows the workings of Europe. He was, for five years, from 1997 to 2002, Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the Jospin government. At the time, the rise of the Express near the then prime minister, who had just been elected deputy of the Doubs for the first time, had been criticized. But, he will prove himself. Former MEP, a graduate of Sciences Po and ENA, he will prepare no quack the French presidency of the EU, negotiating the Treaty of Nice and the European Constitutional Treaty. During this period of cohabitation, he managed also to find his place against Jacques Chirac. In fact, the President of the Republic and the Socialist Minister for European Affairs are of course in these five years: Chirac taking the young minister with no experience under his wing, even to comfort him when he doubted. An agreement with Lionel Jospin was annoyed.

After the failure of the left in 2002, Moscovici was defeated in the parliamentary elections in the Doubs. A year earlier, he had already failed to municipal Montbéliard. Without parliamentary seat, without mayor, he tried his luck with the 2004 European and found his seat in Strasbourg. In 2007 he was again legislative candidate in the Doubs. This time he wins.

Pierre Moscovici, tried by the Revolutionary Communist League when he was young, joined the PS in 1984. He was close to Michel Rocard, Jospin and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, his former professor at the ENA. He is the son of a social psychologist Serge Moscovici, who was a member of the Romanian Communist Party and fled his country in 1947. Pierre Moscovici was the first to openly criticize the Socialist Francois Mitterrand and his relationship with Rene Bousquet. "What shocks me, he said, is that he can spawn with someone who has been a tool of the state anti-Semitism and an accomplice of the final solution of the Reich." … …..

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3 Suisses must be patient. Three years after removing nearly 700 jobs a year and a half after the launch of a major modernization plan in 2013, the specialist mail order (VPC) is still not the end of his troubles.

In 2011, the turnover of the group 3 Suisses International (3SI) fell a further 5.6% and the accounts are still in the red. Of course, "this decline is partly explained by the market environment somewhat depressed for clothing," says German Otto vpciste which holds 51% stake (alongside the Family Association Mulliez 44%). But the European leader recognizes that the repositioning of 3SI in losses since 2005, is "a little slow."

Denis Terrien, founder and CEO of Amazon. Fr, arrived in June 2009 with orders for 3SI to instill the spirit internet business that made him still lacking. Born in 1932, the group had made back in 1998, however the entire catalog of its flagship brand online in 2007 and had proposed its first application to control from his mobile phone. But the organization was still oriented around the two "big book" seasonal, declined in line with their promotion system increasingly important.

The figures show that the mutation is far from over: according to our information, the three Swiss have a cumulative loss of 165 million euros since 2008, with another 15 million euros last year. For all consumer brands, the loss would amount to 110 million euros. "It is unlikely that the 3 Suisses reach equilibrium this year, as foreseen in the strategic plan. For this particular reason that Laurence Paganini had to give up CEO in late January to the leader of spoiler, "says a close case.

Delete homes losses

While its competitor La Redoute (Redcats) has already increased from 2 to 10 collections a year, a key element of the transformation, the catalogs remain offseason in three Swiss still largely a work in progress. This explains why the 3 Suisses realize only 66% of their online sales against 78% for La Redoute. The average is 50% for the ten consumer brands 3SI (3 Suisses, Blancheporte, Spoiler, Window Magic …), or 11 points less than the subsidiary of PPR. "The challenge of this evolution to the Internet is to keep its best customers, while attracting new, old, and their loyalty," said Olivier Trouvé, a consultant at Kurt Salmon instant credit reports.

Meanwhile, 3SI continues to suppress outbreaks of losses: the last of its 35 stores closed earlier this year. As the site buy / sell 2xMoinsCher, acquired in 2006. What about its subsidiary, resumed in spring 2010 for his younger clients file, it also pulled the curtain end of January.

The transformation should move faster once the redesign of systems of consumer brands finalized. Group 3 SI has indeed devoted nearly half of the envelope of € 70 million plan to modernize the "largest construction site computer currently in France," according 3SI. The links between trade marks may be tightened in order to promote cross-selling, as is done on the virtual shopping mall lechouchou.com, online since late January. "The IT component is the only site where the three Swiss were up," according to critics.

Become a service provider

3 Suisses are now trying two revolutions at once: to turn into e-trader and service provider for other Internet retailers. More than half of the investments are vested in the building at Hem, near Lille, the "largest database storage and order picking in France," according to 3 Suisses International (SI 3). The warehouse, built next to that of Mondial Relay, covers an area comparable to six football fields and will be operational in October.  

The building, where packages are trademarks of the group to mingle with other online retailers, is the missing of the SI strategy 3, which wants to open its various subsidiaries to external customers. Very optimistic, the group expects to double the number of clients, individuals and professionals to reach 20 million by 2020. At its shareholder Otto, the branch services increased 9% in 2011, exceeding one billion euros. Ikea and Oxylane make their photos in the studios of Quai de l'Image. Mondial Relay manages some 1,200 parcels of e-tailers, as the Relais Colis, a subsidiary of La Redoute.

"The picking is more strategic than other services. 3 Suisses may have difficulty recruiting. Especially since many experts have already invested the niche of Logistics, "said an e-merchant, reflecting the view of many respondents. Even private-sale, real reference in the sector, has decided to delegate the logistics of the Digital Factory, its service company for e-tailers.

After the United States, Canada, Britain and Japan, Google is embarking on movie rentals in France. "Several hundred feature films from major Hollywood studios and French are available for rent today," said Google France Thursday on his blog.

The films include new releases available at 3.99 euros in high definition and VF, such as Drive, Tintin and The Year of the State, and feature films catalog at 2.99 euros (3.99 euros HD) as The Jerk, Pirates of the Caribbean and Inside Man. These films come from partnerships with EuropaCorp, M6 Video / SND, Europe Disney, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures. The lease is for one month, and the reading must be completed within 48 hours.

Play Google, reply to iTunes

Movie rentals enrich Google under "Movies" from YouTube No teletrack payday loans. They are also the new Google platform Play, launched in early March, which integrates the Android application store (eg Android Market) and could accommodate the service Google Music at its launch in France.

With "Play", Google seems to replicate the strategy of Apple's iTunes. The films are not only readable from a computer, but also from within the application "Google Movies Play 'on the shelves, and Android smartphones (but not television). Sign of the importance of Google Play, a link to the new service appears in this week since the navigation bar of Google, along with research, Google Maps and Google +.

If the timing of the IPO Facebook is still not known, investors are in turmoil. And gendarmes stock alert. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the authority of U.S. financial markets, has struck a major blow this week by denouncing irregularities in the market called "pre-IPO" or pre-IPO. She has filed suit Wednesday against SharesPost, a leading specialized platforms in exchange for shares of unlisted companies, like Facebook or Twitter. His main mistake "of having effected transactions in securities without being registered in advance with the regulators as a brokerage." Clearly, the operations were carried out in a strictly regulated market.

Finally, the SEC and the founder of SharesPost, Greg Brogger, reached an agreement. The company must pay a fine of $ 80,000, and its founder will pay $ 20,000 bonus. In addition, SharesPost acquired a brokerage, which allowed him to register with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), another regulatory body. The SEC announced parallel lawsuits against two managers of private funds – Felix Investments and Free Facie Management Associates – "created solely to acquire shares of Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies, deceiving investors and pocketing commissions unspecified ". The managers of these two companies have sold securities to Facebook prices up to 66 dollars per share, nearly twice the rate at which they had got hold of it, denounces the regulator.  

Gamble "even for sophisticated investors"

"While we applaud innovation in financial markets, new platforms and new products must obey the laws and ensuring fairness and transparency are the basic mark of a good financial regulation", argued a officials of the SEC, Robert Khuzami, said in a statement payday loans. This is a very sensitive issue because Facebook is trading on a gray market with a valuation of nearly $ 98 billion! However, in the first approach, the experts were hoping for a stock of Figaro valuation of approximately $ 75 billion. Finally, it should rather be on the order of $ 100 billion, they say.

The issue of pre-IPO market is considerable, at a time when the SEC ensures restore investor confidence. "When you do not trust your neighbors are happy to see that there are police on the streets," said Max Wolff, in charge of research on the secondary market at GreenCrest Capital in New York, in the columns World. SharesPost and SecondMarket platforms are best known on the secondary market. A market that has allowed tens of thousands of wealthy investors to take their share of companies very popular, as were also Zynga or Groupon before their IPO. Caution, however, not to lose feathers, warns Marc Fagel, director of the SEC office in San Francisco, said in the statement: "This secondary market (…) is dangerous even for sophisticated investors."

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EU leaders breathed a sigh of relief Friday after the success of the voluntary exchange of Greek debt, 85.8% subscribed by private creditors. Within the euro area, this is Nicolas Sarkozy, who hosted the agreement with more enthusiasm. "I am pleased that we have found a solution to the Greek crisis plaguing the financial economic situation of Europe and the world for months," welcomed the French president, traveling to Nice election. "With Angela Merkel we worked day and night to find a solution," he recalled. "Today, the problem is solved, and the page of the financial crisis is beginning to turn" it was welcomed.

In Berlin, the reaction was more cautious. According to the spokesman of the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is "encouraged" by the agreement. "It would be a big mistake to give the impression that the crisis is resolved," warned the German Minister Wolfgang Schauble Finances.Pour "an important step was taken, but we are not out of the woods."

The agreement sealed between Athens and its private creditors will erase 107 billion euros of debt, a total of 350 billion. This is a historic debt reduction. It must allow the Greek debt, which now reaches 160% of GDP, reaching 120.5% in 2020, a ratio similar to that of Italy.

"This agreement allows more to protect Europe from Greece to help that Greece itself" summarizes Jacob Kirkegaard, a researcher at Washington. Photo credits: Kostas Tsironis / Bloomberg

The state reform was one of the major projects of the quinquennium. In this reform called General Policy Review (RGPP), launched by Nicolas Sarkozy, the non-replacement of a retirement of two in the public service was the single most iconic. RGPP but is also creating employment Pole, the merger of Taxation and Treasury Bercy or the removal of small courts.

In a report released Tuesday, the OECD welcomes this approach. It considers the RGPP as "an important step in modernizing the State in France" and believes that our country is now in "a relatively privileged position" in relation to others. The international organization noted that the RGPP has a 6.4% drop in employment in the State Civil Service between 2007 and 2012 (or 150,000 job cuts), which had never happened before in the Hexagon.

Method of systematic cuts

Nevertheless, the OECD, France must go further. The process cost optimization should become permanent. The organization advocates to develop a method of systematic cuts, setting an annual goal of lower costs – staff and others – by department.

For this, the future government will have to better communicate with officials. For today, the cost reduction is not part of the culture of public service, according to the OECD. RGPP was seen as temporary. It has not attracted the membership of the employees. "There is a gap between the feeling of the effort made by the agents and the amount of the reforms on the one hand, and budget savings from the other," wrote the report.

In fact, the savings should only reach 15 billion by 2013. This is small compared to a deficit of 136.5 billion in 2010. But that is because the RGPP was limited to a restructuring of the state.

To reduce its debt, France must now carry out a review of its social policies and its tax loopholes. The OECD also asked to set up a RGPP for local communities. "The organization and governance of local government – characterized by many levels of local, a very large number of common, yet significant presence of the state and level of employment increasing rapidly – are expensive and need to be rationalized, "we read in the report. It would be clearer!

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The recession strikes again the countries of the euro for the second time in three years. The currency area will see its GDP to contract by 0.3% in 2012, according to European Commission forecasts that appear to save the two largest economies: France and Germany.

The downward revision – Brussels was expecting again in the fall of an increase in activity of 0.5% – extends to the entire European Union. France escapes the turnaround with a forecast growth of 0.4%, roughly in line with latest government forecasts Fillon (+0.5%).

Failing to be a locomotive, Germany allows the EU to avoid the worst. With an expected growth of 0.6%, Europe's largest economy has its direct neighbors of the stalemate, the image of France, Austria (+0.7%), Denmark (+1.1 %) or in Poland (+2.5%). There are two important exceptions to the ripple effect: the Netherlands who plunge by 0.9% and Belgium 0.1%.

Southern countries of the euro are paying the heaviest price by debt and austerity. Italy's GDP would shrink by 1.3%, 1% of Spain, Portugal and Greece would suffer even more. Olli Rehn, Commissioner for Economic Affairs, evokes a recession yet more "moderate" in 2009 and bears his gaze to signs of stabilization or thinning at the end of the year fast cash online.

Strategy in question

Remains a growing number of economists and politicians worry about the costs of social and economic efficiency of the recovery strategy for the past two fiscal years. Growth, it is precisely at issue EU summit on Thursday and Friday. David Cameron – but Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel -, Spain and Italy already calling for a rebalancing of priorities: less for austerity and more to the activity. The Netherlands and Poland are on the same line.

Brussels is sticking for now, the official line. "Countries that markets to monitor more closely should strive to reach their budget target" of return to equilibrium, Commissioner Rehn insisted Thursday. Spain, which has discovered a heavier deficit by changing the majority, however, could be an exception. Brussels could fall, "when there will be more clear," the deficit limit imposed in Madrid (4.4% of GDP in 2012).

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