29 Mar
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 +.
28 Mar
It was too dry in southern Europe. Particularly in Portugal, where the month of February was the driest in 80 years, and Spain. "The disturbances do not pass. (…) We are witnessing an upsurge in forest fires and streams experiencing flow rates up to 80% below normal, "noted recently The Weather Channel. "No improvement, or real return of rain is expected," worries do we, as the drought could lead to "catastrophic harvest."
Red indicates a severe drought.
26 Mar
The success of the magazine inspires XXI Francois and Jean-Dominique Siegel. The two brothers, son of the founder of VSD, Maurice Siegel, April 5 launch a new "magbook" magazine mid-mid-book, Tomorrow We. Their ambition is to make a "marker of social change."
In line with Current, relaunched in 1970 by the post-68 generation, or the U.S. magazine Wired, established in 1993 to decipher the impact of technology in society, they hope to re-register in the frame of the time. "This magazine is a showcase to build something new, Siegel says Francois. If the stock settles, we will develop a website, a platform for trade and a think-tank. "We Demainmise on this societal positioning to differentiate itself from other" magbooks "turned to the big story (XXI), Foresight (& Usbek Rica) or polar (Alibis).
Like the latter, We Demainsera distributed in large networks of library. On an initial run of 30,000 copies, most books will be reserved for rays of Fnac, Virgin, Relay and large newsagents, and those of Carrefour hypermarkets, Auchan and Leclerc no fax payday advance. The title is based on the publisher Le Cherche Midi and its distribution network Interforum (Editis). Tomorrow we will start at 12 euros, and will cost 15 euros, the same price level as other "magbooks".
Create a "label"
The project was fully funded by the GS Group, owned by Francois and Jean-Dominique Sylvain Attal and Siegel, who oversees GS Press, governed and publisher of the monthly Info-Driver and two television quinzomadaires for Auchan and Leader Price. Jean-Dominique Siegel Demainun We hope to do the "label" that will generate a new economic model. Without advertising startup, the title is meant to seduce "brands involved," for traditional advertising or through partnerships, but also to attract investors.
24 Mar
The telecoms market was shaken by the arrival of Free Mobile.
LE FIGARO. – Arcep measured the network's coverage of Free Mobile, but not its actual use or quality. Why?
Jean-Ludovic SILICANI. – ARCEP has verified that Free Mobile has achieved its goal of covering 27% of the population and verify that coverage by 2015. But we did not get involved in network planning or technical choices made. However, the license provides for an appointment between ARCEP and Free Mobile in June 2012 to take stock of all commitments. And we will join the network of Free Mobile in our annual studies on service quality and network coverage that will be published in late 2012. Like the vast majority of traffic Free Mobile subscribers through the Orange network, then measure the quality of service on the network of Free Mobile, with and without the use of the Orange network.
How do you encourage them to deploy its network Free?
It is primarily his own interest. We also have several tools to ensure that Free Mobile arranges to have an effective network. By summer, we must define the price of delivering SMS received by customers Free Mobile. As a new operator, it could benefit, such as Bouygues Telecom, charges higher than those of its competitors to compensate for the handicap start. But Arcep not take into account the additional costs that might result in a strong Free use of its roaming agreement. This should provide strong incentives to deploy its network Free.
Do you think that Free has not invested enough?
Free is committed to build a network covering 75% of the population by 2015. ARCEP can deduce the rate of investment necessary to achieve that goal. And if we find, say in midcourse, that investment is not sufficient to achieve the final goal, we could launch a formal procedure for Free accelerates its spending. A mobile network costs about one billion euros. Today, Free Mobile would have spent about 130 million between 2010 and 2011. We asked its investment plan for 2012. There is no indication at this stage, the investment is insufficient.
The incidents are increasing on the network of Free Mobile. What to do?
The incidents are primarily from technical difficulties in the interconnection between the networks and Orange Free. I think both sides have underestimated both the number of subscribers and the amount of traffic through the Orange network, but also that the offers of € 2 Free Mobile would lead consumers to highlight former phones using the 2G network payday advance online. Today, nearly half of Free Mobile calls are on 2G, but it does not have such a network, customers using the Orange. If necessary, the two operators may agree to restructure their roaming agreement without the intervention of ARCEP. If they fail to agree, they can enter and we will dispose of.
The arrival of Free she too lowered prices in the mobile?
Offers low cost can be criticized when they rely on the labor underpaid, but not when they result in increased productivity or technical progress. It is Free and can have lower prices both because it opens a network with the latest equipment, but also because it has fewer overheads. Politicians can hardly complain that prices fall too heavily in the telecom and rise in energy too.
This creates there a threat to employment in the sector?
No situation can be frozen and must have an overall view of the sector. Some analysts believe the sector could lose about 5,000 to 10,000 jobs a year or two. Of a total of 150,000 this represents 3%, that is to say unless the retirements of the sector. And, at the same time, the digital ecosystem will create many jobs. The balance will surely be significantly positive.
Operators will they continue to invest?
They received ten years of an oligopolistic market in mobile where they have achieved very high margins. They were able to make investments that are no longer to do. The current rate of investment of 8 billion euros a year does not need to be increased. Build a network of fiber optic networks and several mobile broadband covering the whole area costs about 30 billion euros over 15 years, or two billion a year. Reported to the 8 billion, it is not so heavy a load it.
Some accuse you of promoting Free Mobile. Have you exceeded your role?
In December 2008, the Prime Minister has decided to award a fourth mobile phone license. When I arrived at the ARCEP, in May 2009, I had never met the leaders of the Free. I found this and I managed impartially. The Authority has done everything to ensure that other actors such as Virgin or Bolloré Telecom, were not interested. Some have thought, but not decide. It is true that there was a risk that only dared to take Free. Moreover, we knew punish Free when necessary: in 2010, on its unlimited packages fixed, or last year, on the fiber. Free as We treat all other operators.
23 Mar
A decree and a decree signed by Xavier Bertrand were published in the Official Journal on Thursday, trying to implement a solution against excess fees the most excessive.
As expected, the Minister of Health proposes to anesthetists, surgeons and obstetricians in sector 2 (free prices) to limit their excess fees to 50% beyond the "tariff Safely." It also requires them to perform at least 30% of acts without overshoot. Nothing compulsory volunteers receive in exchange for partial support of their social contributions. In parallel, complementary health (mutual, private insurers, pension funds) are imposed the obligation to repay the overruns to keep certain tax advantages.
The device must be expanded in the coming days. Another decree to impose additional pay as overruns in other medical specialties. With one difference: the doctors involved will commit to not charge more than 20% above the tariff Safely, on acts alone techniques (imaging, minor surgery …). They can not in practice on clinical procedures and consultations.
Paradox: the device does not fully satisfied neither the doctors nor the supplemental insurers, not patients. While appreciating a "real breakthrough", the CSMF, the first organization of private practitioners, regrets that "practitioners of a sector is left out payday loans lenders." Even the tone of the union side, the Bloc, the majority among the surgical specialties. A sector physicians are those who do not have the right to introduce overshoot. They should stick to Safely rates. But Medicare itself recognizes that such rates, frozen for years because of funding, will not match the cost nor the time nor the level of expertise and legal risk of surgical procedures .
Mutuality French, meanwhile, feared windfall: many surgeons already practicing anesthetists or overruns "moderate". They could grow to the the 50% tariff beyond Social Security, and receive in addition to the lightening of their burdens. Conversely, in areas with a concentration of very large excesses (Paris, Lyon, Paca …), the Mutual fears that the track is "unattractive to practitioners" and therefore ineffective. For patients without supplemental coverage (less than 10% of the population), the problem will remain the same for them.
The solution is partial, imperfect, its success is not guaranteed. She still deserves to exist, after years of fruitless negotiations between doctors, health insurance and mutual agreements signed no tomorrow, and threats of intervention policies ever implemented.
21 Mar
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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19 Mar
Users are indeed more likely to make purchases from the shelf but it's mostly e-commerce, according to a survey conducted by Orange. And if they plébiscitent reading news on this screen pleasant, that finds her diary, they are not necessarily willing to pay. In the U.S., only 14% of users have an application fee information, the survey conducted in the fall by the Pew Research Center Center among 1200 users. Only 21% would be willing to pay $ 5 a month to access their preferred source of information on shelf.
In France, the time spent reading newspaper articles increased by 75% for tablet users. The tablet has changed the online consumer and has particular evening.
"63% of these same consumers prefer the traditional players in the information, having a strong brand, aggregators like Google News," according to a study by the agency Starcom and BBC.com. But only 2% of households are equipped … And it is especially the magazines that have taken their game from the start by providing copies of pay. Newspapers rely surf craze enhance their subscription offer which allows to find the newspaper on all media.
"Buy simple and painless"
In addition to revenue from advertising, some also hope to sell their content on the tablet. "People are willing to spend as long as the act of purchase is simple and painless, around € 0 my credit score.10 article," said William Multrier, which launched YouMag, an aggregator of content by topic, iPad . "The economy of the media on the net is made of small numbers." Ad rates have fallen "but the production costs of essays pure player more," Sire Cédric assumes, of Webedia. Clearly, traditional media will survive after a diet, tablets or not.
Especially as intermediaries try to capture this market. Several aggregators have joined the race. They propose a new reading experience. Flipboard, for example, appears as the contents recovered a magazine on social networks. But the media are wary of these intermediaries that undermine the unity of the mark (before they bought a newspaper and not an article or section). Moreover, "they are only useful for more widely distributed paid content. Otherwise, on the free items, they cannibalize our advertising revenue, "says does one group within the French ePresse Premium.
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17 Mar
After Paris, Marseille. The Mama Shelter, the boho hip hotel, launched in September 2008 by Serge Trigano, Philippe Starck and Cyril Aouizerate, will inaugurate a second location in ten minutes from the port of Marseille, April 12. "This opening has been delayed, admits Serge Trigano. But there's no hurry. We open where we want when we want! "He promises, however, an acceleration of openings, emphasizing that" the twenty-first century will be the century of cities for tourism. " The inauguration of a Mama Shelter is announced for the second half in Istanbul. Lyon and Bordeaux before early 2013. Negotiations are also underway for the opening in an old 1920s hotel, in the district of Hollywood, Los Angeles, "late 2013". "We have building permits for all hotels, except Los Angeles, who was responsible DG and CEO of Club Med between 1985 and 1997. The projects are in progress. "It is also seeking a second address in Paris and in Toulouse prospects.
The Mama Shelter in Marseille will be slightly smaller than that of Paris (127 rooms, 172 against), and Philippe Starck, who signs the design again, opted for lighter colors. The rooms, dark in Paris, will be in shades of pink, yellow and blue in Marseille. The first prize will be 69 euros per night, 10 euros less than in Paris. The goal is to reach the first year an average price of 100-115 euros, and an occupancy rate of 50-60%.
Two stars
Attracting a fashionable clientele, a mix of tourists and businessmen, both French and foreign, Mama Shelter is a separate product. All rooms are equipped with an iMac. 95% of sales are on its website. With an average price of 129 euros and an average occupancy rate of 80.5% last year, the institution does, however, that both stars and the residency status of tourism paydayloans. "To save water, we have showers in every room, says Serge Trigano. We are denied today the third star in the new hotel classification because we did not have a bath! "
Since opening, the first price is 79 euros. "We adjust our prices more aggressively: they increase gradually as the occupancy rate also increases," says Serge Trigano. Thus, one room originally proposed to 109 euros can cost up to 149 euros for a client last minute.
Last year, the Mama Shelter has increased its turnover by 14% to 14 million euros, thanks to increased traffic and activity of his restaurant, which represents 50% of sales. It is "500 to 800 covers per day. Even in our wildest dreams we never thought to attract so many people. " Since January, sales of Mama Shelter increased by over 10%.
"Investors were apprehensive at first, says Serge Trigano. Decide to open a hotel in the twentieth arrondissement of Paris, by focusing as much on his restaurant on the rooms, it was a gamble. But the great sagas hotel (Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton …) are often stories of families. The results exceeded our expectations. "Holding today 54% stake in the company with his two son, along with three associates, Michel Reybier (27%), Cyril Aouizerate (11%) and Philippe Starck (8%) he works with the family at Mama Shelter. His son Jeremiah (35) is CEO. His other son, Benjamin (35 years) is in charge of marketing. Residing in Los Angeles, he prospected for brand development in the United States.
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16 Mar
Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia, has again scored points in the guerrilla who opposes Proglio, former CEO of the environment and current president of EDF. Thursday, the Board of Directors of Veolia was held in the absence of Proglio. The meeting, which took place in calm, devoted to a marked shift in the balance of power between the two men at the expense of Proglio, and in favor of Mr. Frérot.
Esther Koplowitz and Jean-Francois Dehecq, two directors of Proglio relatives, should leave the Board in effect at the expiration of their term at the general meeting on May 16, 2012. The banker at Lazard, George Ralli, hitherto independent director and be close to Proglio, will he, the representative of Groupama, in place of Jean Azema, arrived five months ago the management of the mutual insurer .
"Engendering the board"
Finally, Serge Michel, the fourth director whose term will soon expire, is the only one to be renewed as it is. 85 years old and named, like all other board members when Proglio was CEO of Veolia, this connoisseur of Veolia always follows the group and its executives very closely.
Antoine Frérot wanted, according to a close, "feminize the board and introduce other adminirtrateurs present and ready to engage in the conduct of Veolia Environnement." Two women, Maryse Aulagnon, founding president of the Affine group, specializing in commercial real estate, and Nathalie Rachou, manager of Topiary Finance, should come to the board at the general meeting, as well as the general manager of the automotive Valeo, Jacques Aschenbroich. Finally, Augustin de Romanet, who recently retired head of the Deposit, Veolia's largest shareholder with 9.2% stake, will be replaced by chief financial officer of the public group, Olivier Mareuse.
Of seventeen directors, only three or four belong, after the meeting, the clan of personalities hostile to Mr. Frérot. The risk of a challenge after the elections, the leadership of this group which the State is not a shareholder, seems to go away.
In February, Proglio had sought to evict his ex-Dolphin Executive Officer of Veolia. He had found the boards of other voices to challenge the implementation of the recovery plan of the group. But the prospect of arrival of former Minister of Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo, opportunely announced in early March, killed the project in the bud. Better, Mr. Frérot then received its directors affirmed its support radical strategy, focused on an overall cost reduction, debt and group activities to local services. Although some have yet to see "how the restructuring is taking place," investors and financial analysts have welcomed the decision of the board. The stock has gained 1.08% Thursday. Worst performance of the CAC 40 in 2011, he returned 43% since January 1. What, again, release the pressure on the group.
14 Mar
In the logic of "rights and duties" which is his, Nicolas Sarkozy promised Monday night to tax tax exiles. The Government has already established last year an exit tax, which taxes unrealized gains of the French going abroad. But the president-candidate wants to go further, proposing that any tax paid to the exiled French tax authorities the difference between the tax paid in their country of residence and that he would have paid in France.
First precision, only capital income – dividends, interest, capital gains – would be affected, if they exceed a certain threshold. With these conditions, expatriates escape, as desired by Nicolas Sarkozy, to higher taxation. Indeed, one part went to work abroad receives a salary, which does not fall within the scope of the measure, and some capital income too low to exceed the threshold. Conversely, the exiles are often more active and live their heritage.
The focus on capital income has another advantage, purely political: to distinguish themselves from the proposal made in 2010 by Jerome Cahuzac, president of the PS Finance Committee in the Assembly, to tax high incomes of French abroad, including labor income. At the time, Baroin, budget minister, had criticized the idea, speaking of "right of blood tax" contrary to the French system.
Compatibility with European law
In fact, our tax law, like all developed countries except the U.S., is built on territoriality, not nationality: French living in Germany a payroll tax beyond the Rhine, a German resident in France and acquitted in the Hexagon. "As a result, the measure proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy assumed to renegotiate our tax treaties with other countries. A complicated task, "says Nicolas Jacquot, partner at Arsene Taxand. In the campaign team, it was answered that it will suffice to review the agreements with the states most favored by the tax exiles. Such as Belgium, Luxembourg or Switzerland. "However, France will have to convince these countries to negotiate, which is nothing obvious," warns Marc Vaslin, partner at Scotto & Associates, a law firm based in Paris, Geneva and Brussels.
Another question: that of incompatibility with European law. European Commissioner Michel Barnier yesterday denied any obstacle. An opinion not shared by the Circle of the tax, which analyzes the candidates' proposals for Le Figaro throughout the campaign: "the measure can be considered an obstacle to freedom of movement and settlement," notes the one of its members, attorney Jean-Yves Mercier. In short, the practical implementation of the tax exiles looks daunting.
If these revenues were estimated at 500 million by Nicolas Sarkozy, some are more skeptical. "The very wealthy households keep their assets in holding companies and pay themselves the minimum income," says Jean-Yves Mercier. The number of exiles is itself unclear. Just do you know that 500 indebted to ISF leave the country every year and from 2000 to 2500 the French enjoy preferential treatment in Switzerland. To verify the application of the measure, the IRS will conduct examinations heavy and therefore costly. The measure will be symbolic in every sense of the term.
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