Archive for the ‘economics’ Category

Android: Samsung will have to pay microsoft

September 29, 2011 - 7:08 pm Comments Off

"Android is not free." Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, had reiterated in an interview with CNN. The computer giant, who believes that this platform violates several of its patents, asking all manufacturers of devices using it to pay him royalties. After the Taiwan-based Acer and HTC, so it's Samsung's turn to bend. The Korean giant has signed an agreement to this effect Wednesday requiring him to pay royalties to Microsoft on sales of each of its smartphones governed by the system Android.

The terms of this agreement shall remain confidential. Note that Samsung should pay, however, could be as salty as that of HTC, which would pay about $ 5 a smartphone. The success of the Samsung Galaxy SII should fully make the computer giant.

In addition to this financial agreement, Samsung is committed to supporting the development and marketing of Windows Home Phone System. The Korean giant has also announced the launch of the Omnia W under the new version of the operating system.

Google angry

While Microsoft enjoys this new victory, Google outcry. The system designer Android is supposed to be free, denounced a "tactic for many times," close to extortion. "Failing to succeed in the market for smartphones, Microsoft relies on legal measures to extract profits from the success of others and may impede the pace of innovation," protested one voice. "We remain focused on the development of new technologies and partner support of Android," he said.

Terminal manufacturers using this operating system are in a very uncomfortable situation. First, Android is very expensive. On the other hand, the surprise takeover of Motorola's mobile division by Google places them under direct threat of seeing the search engine to give priority access to innovations in its new line of mobile phones.

The parade is perhaps the signing of new partnerships. Samsung is well to conclude an agreement with Intel to develop another operating system called Tizen.

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The G20 mobilized to reassure the financial world

September 24, 2011 - 9:36 am Comments Off

Unity is strength. Armed with this saying and to respond to the stock market crash that plagues the financial markets around the world, the twenty richest economies in the world decided to act jointly. Thus, after a dinner Thursday in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 pledged to provide "a strong and coordinated international response" to the crisis.

No statement should be issued initially. But given the urgency of the situation and "the common observation of the need for a collective response," said French Finance Minister Baroin, the G20 is prepared to take "all necessary measures to maintain stability banking systems and financial markets. " For banks, countries ensure that "they have adequate capital," they keep "sufficient access to finance."Central banks provide them with "the necessary liquidity."

At the same time and in response to a request by the G20 in September addressed to Nicolas Sarkozy, the euro zone countries have pledged to implement "necessary measures to increase the flexibility of the European financial stability and maximize its impact to prevent contagion bad credit unsecured personal loans. "

And G20 members say they are committed to act on all fronts: against "increased risk of deterioration" due to soaring public debt, against "the weakened financial system" and "turmoil" growth "low" and "unacceptable level of unemployment." To do this, they will take action to "support growth" while adopting "credible fiscal consolidation plans."And the time is short since the club 20 is the adoption of "an ambitious collective action plan before the summit in Cannes," in early November.

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Jérôme Kerviel would be considered on appeal in June 2012

September 16, 2011 - 1:32 pm Comments Off

For Jérôme Kerviel, the horizon is not entirely clear. His appeal is expected in June 2012. At trial, the former Societe Generale trader was sentenced Oct. 5, 2010 for fraud, breach of trust, forgery and uttering forged documents and five years in prison, three farm, and 4.9 billion euros in damages. The stakes are huge for him, if his conviction was upheld, he could not escape from the prison, having been detained one month and ten days in custody.

Olivier Metzner, remained the only lawyer after a parade of big names in Paris, he prepares the deadline today and this time decided to stay quiet.When the scandal broke, there was much media-presentation, signing, even before his trial, a book, The Gear, memoirs of a trader (Flammarion), in which he denounced "the reality of banking practices."

"Someone basically nice"

Today, thirty years working for a computer consulting firm located in Levallois, near Paris. The boss of this company, expert in court and knowledge of his brother and his first attorney, had befriended the young Breton and had welcomed home after the blast caused by the scandal. "All the people who approached basically found someone nice. He tries to do well in his way. And it's someone you can trust, "assured RTL in 2010 Jean-Raymond Lemaire, his employer.

The scandal January 24, 2008 when Societe Generale announced a record loss of 4.9 billion. Suspicion immediately converge on the trading Delta One desk model that would have concealed astronomical risk positions taken on the markets. At trial, Jerome Kerviel ensures that the bank had encouraged him to take such risks and had then "unwound" these positions in spite of common sense.

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Wall Street Weathering the Storm

September 13, 2011 - 6:20 am Comments Off

The U.S. stock markets resist panic that has driven down European shares on Monday. At the close, the Dow gained 0.63% to 10,061.12 points, the Nasdaq climbed 1.10% to 2495.09 points and the S & P is 0.70% to 1162.27 points.

Very hesitant, the indices increased to rise at the very end of the session after the Financial Times announced that Italy has asked China to perform major purchases of its sovereign debt. Senior Italian officials told the FT that Lou Jiwei, the chairman of China Investment Corp (CIC), was the head of a delegation that went to Rome last week to meet with Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti and as responsible for the Cassa Dspositi e Prestiti.

In addition, investors seemed anxious not to pass down the technical threshold of 1140 points on the S & P 500 (he flirted with during the day)."If we can not maintain this level, the next support is around 1120 points," said Marc Pado, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

U.S. operators, such as Europe and Asia, however, remain very concerned about Greece. They fear it will not be able to meet these budget commitments, which threaten to bankrupt the country and aggravate the crisis in Europe. The German Minister of Economy Philipp Rösler has also not ruled out a bankruptcy ordered Greece to save the euro.

These uncertainties have weighed heavily on European banking stocks, weighed down by their exposure to sovereign debt but also by fears about their solvency and funding.

Busy schedule for

United States, Barack Obama will submit to Congress today plan to revive the economy and employment announced Thursday.The president renewed his call "to Congress to adopt this bill, which contains the kind of proposals to grow the economy and create jobs."

Week is low in business results – the retailer Best Buy and diverse manufacturing Pall is the only component of the S & P 500 to publish figures – investors will focus primarily on a series of macroeconomic indicators.The latter include retail sales, the producer prices and consumption as well as statistics on the manufacturing sector.

Note, however, leading indicators of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published this morning, reporting a "slowdown" of the world's major economies.

Oil climbs the slope

In the wake of renewed tensions, the euro remained sharply lower against the greenback Monday, falling below $ 1.35 even briefly, due to another bout of market panic response to the crisis in Europe. End of the session in Paris, the single European currency was worth 1.3645 dollars against 1.3649 dollars on Friday night. Earlier, the euro fell to 1.3495 dollars, its lowest level since Feb. 16. The euro also fell to its lowest level in a decade against the yen. The euro bought 104.64 yen against 105.91 yen Friday.In the early morning, the euro fell to 103.90 yen, its lowest level since June 2001.

Oil prices have them finished up in New York Monday, bouncing after suffered early in the day of the depressed European stock markets. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, a barrel of "light sweet crude" for October delivery ended at 88.19 dollars, up 95 cents from Friday. "All the elements seemed to fall together in oil prices. I do not know why they are up now. I talked to brokers in the trading room, everyone is scratching their heads, "said Rich Ilczyszyn, broker at MF Global. As equity markets, it evokes a technical reason "because of coverage positions."

Broadcom target NetLogic

The side of values, Bank of America (0.86% to 7.04 dollars) on Monday announced it would cut about 30,000 jobs "in the coming years", or just over 10% of its workforce, in As part of the first phase of a major restructuring.

The chip maker Broadcom (-1.11% to 33.07 dollars) plans to buy NetLogic Microsystems (50.80% to 48.01 dollars) to $ 3.7 billion (2.7 billion euros) to develop its line of chips for wireless networks. The announcement helped to bring the technology sector.

The French group Technip Engineering said Monday the acquisition of the entire capital of the U.S. Global Industries (51.07% to 7.78 dollars), a specialist oil services submarines, based on a valuation of $ 1.07 billion (770 million).Technip will pay $ 8 cash per share, Global Industries, a premium of 55% over the closing price of its prey Friday night on Wall Street.

For its part, the online retailer Amazon (2.45% to 216.56 dollars) would be in discussions with publishers to launch a book rental service digital subscription, said Sunday the Wall Street Journal in its edition line.

After the unexpected departure of the patron saint of Internet giant Yahoo!, Carol Bartz, rumors of a union between Yahoo! (-1.48% To 14.27 million) and AOL (0.14% to 14.74 dollars) have resurfaced. The CEO of the Internet service provider America, Tim Armstrong, have consulted with investment companies to test investor appetite for a reconciliation between the two groups advance Bloomberg.Tim Armstrong become the leader of the group.

For his part, Hertz Global (-1.73% to 9.66 dollars) has extended the date of its offer for Dollar Thrifty (0.05% to 64.92 euros) Automotive Group (DTG) until November 1 .

Wynn Resorts (2.19% to 151.68 dollars) through its subsidiary, Wynn Macau has announced the acquisition of land over 20 hectares to the government of Macau for approximately $ 193 million. The plot, located on the Cotai area, should allow the development of a resort and recreation.

Obama announces plan to 447 billion to boost employment

September 9, 2011 - 7:12 pm Comments Off

Barack Obama knew last night that he should seize the last opportunity to pass stimulus measures. For 32 minutes he has compiled the list of measures characterized as "urgent", intended to support consumption and encourage the hiring in 2012. With a little luck and cooperation from the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, some of these measures will be adopted in early 2012.

In fact, the time is right. The presidential campaign in full swing as early as January. Common ground between Democrats and Republicans are thus virtually impossible to find in March.

To appeal to conservatives, Barack Obama is wearing more than half of its plan to 447 billion dollars of reductions in charges paid by employees and businesses.By halving the payroll tax that finances the retirement program, Social Security, the President went even further than previously thought.

The issue of funding on hold

In the minutes after the speech, John Boehner and Eric Cantor, the two leading House Republicans, said they wanted to do that such measures are discussed. They do not want to obstruct all types of measures: their constituents are just as concerned about the risk of relapse into recession as the Democratic voters low rates payday advance. Other reaching out to Republicans: the promise to submit to Congress on free trade agreements negotiated for a long time with Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Finally, the issue of infrastructure spending, Republicans should also be attracted, even if the chances that they align themselves to finance projects rail transit are slim. Moreover, the proposed transfer of funds to States to preserve the jobs of civil servants might not pass Congress.

Then there is the crucial issue of financing of these measures. Barack Obama has stated repeatedly that they would all be funded. But he did not say how.

It should not provide details until next week, when finally published its plan for debt reduction over the medium term. The White House makes plans to finance these stimulus measures need to be involved in 2012, by savings in the longer term.Republicans, eager to reduce public debt now, will try to find savings elsewhere in 2012, to finance what they will accept the plan Obama.

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"Barack Obama Figaro:" Those who attacked us on September 11 have failed "

September 8, 2011 - 2:52 am Comments Off

Free for now will accept cash, or take away from the call for applications for licenses 4G. Wednesday, the Council of State rejected the application for an interim operator to obtain a spreading of the payment. The sages have ruled that Free was justified "or a breach sufficiently serious and immediate interests, or consequences that may affect sustainable competitive market structure that would be likely to constitute an emergency." In other words, not Free convinced that the call for candidates favored the larger operators, who have the means to immediately implement the fixed portion of the license.

Free for all is not over. The State Council will consider the application for annulment of the procedure "in the coming months." Meanwhile, the call for applications for these frequencies will take its course. And the timing is tight.The operators concerned must submit an application before September 15 for the 2.6 GHz band and before December 15 for the 800 MHz band, which relate to the state at least 2 low fee payday advance.5 billion euros and accelerate access mobile Internet. "We were as far as possible to encourage competition. But we also need strong operators, able to achieve very significant investment for years to come, "explained the Minister of Industry Éric Besson Le Figaro on Monday.

Two other cases against the call for applications for licenses 4G remain. Several unions require the licensing to be accompanied by a clause of "location of jobs in France." Bouygues Telecom, for its part, denies that the operators have to bear the costs associated with the 4G frequency interference by the signals of TNT."We assess that risk to less than 2% of homes," said Eric Besson minimized Monday in Le Figaro. In response, however, the government will establish "a single phone number with a small call center, so that individuals can report any such interference on their TV and get the linkage with the responsible operator."

Doubts on funding from Societe Generale in Libya

September 6, 2011 - 10:48 am Comments Off

New blow for SocGen. While the second French bank is particularly turbulent stock market since the beginning of the summer, with a share price halved in three months, she has to face new suspicions. After the unfounded rumors about the supposed risks of bankruptcy, after questioning by U.S. authorities in a fraud complaint on subprime, Societe Generale now sees its relationship with the Gaddafi regime scrutinized. The new Libyan authorities are looking into effect on the investment made by the French bank with the Libyan sovereign fund, the Libyan Investment Authority, reports the Wall Street Journal. Some of these funds would have landed in the hands of people close to the government in place, the paper said.Societe Generale would have paid a certain amount to a Panamanian company, Leinad, to help organize and advise an investment of one billion dollars in 2008. If the exact mission of Leinad is not yet clear, its role has at least been criticized by members of the Libyan sovereign fund, before the start of the Libyan revolt, the newspaper said payday lenders.

For now, the bank declined to comment on its relations with the sovereign fund Leinad or Libya, says the Wall Street Journal. Societe Generale, however, said she has "worked occasionally with financial intermediaries in countries where it is not directly present."And these consultants are "fully selected and monitored in accordance with our procedures and ethics with the law and in full transparency with the customer," said the group, some have "acted in full accordance with the laws and regulations the sovereign ".

Throughout the reign of Colonel Gaddafi, it was indeed common for large groups pay foreign intermediaries, advisors and consultants to do business with Libya.

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The worsening economic and social crisis in Greece

September 3, 2011 - 1:44 am Comments Off

The debt crisis turns to Greek tragedy and psychodrama. Tuesday night, a committee of experts of Parliament in an official report revealed that the country's debt was "out of control." The next day, denial and criticism rang out, Evangelos Venizelos, the Finance Minister did not mince words, stating that these auditors did not have "neither the knowledge nor the experience nor the necessary responsibility to judge the debt ", a few hours later, the director of the parliamentary commission complained resigned.

Stock market crash

Friday, an additional layer was taken with the surprise announcement of the suspension for ten days, the mission started in Athens earlier this week by experts from the troika (EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund).This sudden departure caused an outcry in the country and the stock market plummeted at the opening, causing the European financial centers in its wake. The finance minister has tried to downplay the event: "There was no rupture of discussions between the country and the Troika," he said. But Evangelos Venizelos has failed to convince, especially as he admitted, following that "Greece will not hold its goals of reducing the public deficit in 2011 due to the deepening recession in the country. " GDP is forecast to decline by at least 5% this year, the government now provides, which leads mechanically to predict a deficit of 8.8% of GDP at end 2011, against a previous estimate of 7.4%.

It is a fact, almost a year and a half after the introduction of the first austerity plan, Greece is again up against the wall.The austerity measures have led to a sharp recession and sealed growth, competitiveness and production. The unemployment rate reached 16.6% last month. "The committee was right. The debt is really out of control because it is growing and will continue to grow, "Analysis Stefanos Manos, a former finance minister credit reports free. "It is sad to see that the government did nothing for months. No reform of the state system, not privatization, but only the imposition of taxes and cuts in wages! There are more public spending in 2009, before the crisis, he said. This time, it is urgent, bankruptcy is just around the nose. International leaders must tap your feet.They should refuse to grant the sixth installment of the loan of 110 billion euros granted to Greece if these measures are not implemented. "This is probably the direction of the departure of the troika, which means by this dramatic move to the pressure on the government.

But this game of poker liar weary Greeks who bear the brunt of austerity. Last significant extent, the increase in VAT in catering from 13 to 23%. "A step too far, according to Giorgos Delastik, a political analyst. The Greeks are exhausted. They think that especially in terms of rigor is not applied the right way to save their country from the crisis, just as Ireland and Portugal. "

Strikes and demonstrations were not long in coming. After the Athens metro and teachers, the outraged calls for a mobilization in Parliament tonight.Ilias Iliopoulos for general secretary of the union officials, the Greeks played their all. "We are on the verge of a social explosion," said he. "In 2010, when the deficit would be reduced by five points, the Greeks had to make huge sacrifices. Today, they can not accept other measures or new cuts on wages. " However, the troika request 2.5 billion savings by the end of the year. The authorities now fear having barely contain the anger of the Greeks, who was radicalized after the summer break.

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The Cac 40 ended the week down 1%

August 26, 2011 - 7:08 pm Comments Off

New tough session in Paris. After opening close to balance (-0.11%), ACC widened its losses in the afternoon, in response to the speech from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. The index rose from 3045 to 3015 points in minutes. But investors quickly resumed: a comprehensive plan was not finally ends probable.Le CAC down 1% to 3087.64 points.

Earlier, the index feature of the Paris market was disappointing not welcome the publication of the second estimate of U.S. GDP in the second quarter. It rose 1% annual rate over the previous three months, said the Commerce Department, revising and down 0.3 points his first estimate of growth in the spring published in late July.Analysts had forecast a less pronounced rate revision, to 1.1%, according to their median forecast.

In Frankfurt, the Dax-30, very bumpy this week limit case and ends with a drop of 0.84% ​​to 5584.14 points after losing more than 3% in séance.À the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE- 100 finished virtually unchanged: it loses 0.02% to 5129.92 points.

Fed pushes to place an ad in September

Highly anticipated speech of the President of the U.S. central bank, Ben Bernanke does not reassure investors. In fact, Bernanke has pushed the September announcement of concrete measures to support the U.S. economy. The central bank is expected to meet more fully next month, he indicated, to "discuss more fully" in the policy.Ben Bernanke also called on U.S. lawmakers to take fiscal stimulus, saying they have more flexibility than the institution.

As for currencies, the euro lost some ground against the dollar after the speech of Ben Bernanke. Around 16:30, the European currency was worth 1.4359 dollars against 1.4441 to 15 hours. As for the oil markets, I Brent North Sea for October delivery was trading at 110.25 dollars on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in London, down 37 cents, while in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a barrel of "light sweet crude" (WTI) for the same maturity lost 35 cents to 84.95 dollars.

In the euro area, regardless of major macroeconomic news.This morning, the companies manufacturing have revised their forecasts down slightly investment for this year and expect a 14% increase (against 15% previously).

The bank's head Cac 40, Peugeot sinks

Essilor International: -0.30% to 52.97 euros

Essilor International in the first semester a turnover of 2.06 billion euros, up 6.9%, the band announced via a press release issued in the edition of Les Echos to appear Friday.

Financials

The ban on short selling financial stocks on Thursday was extended to France, like Italy, Spain and Belgium, and the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) said it would review its position by late September.

This decision only briefly managed to reassure investors.If this decision technique to limit selling pressure on the sector, it does not address the fears that persist on European banks and their exposure to countries in need. After posting the largest gains of the Paris stock in early trading, financial stocks are once again very attacked: Societe Generale lost 2.82% to 21.33 euros, BNP Paribas was down 2.33% at 33, 56 euros, Credit Agricole down 1.41% to 6.419 euros while Natixis closed the show the worst performance (-4.51% to 2.686 euros).

In an interview with Le Figaro, the CEO of Crédit Agricole (-1.41% to 6.419 euros) said the group had "significant cash reserves" and "has no difficulty in financing" .

Conversely, other cyclical stocks, car manufacturers, will gradually take after opening the largest declines in the Paris stock exchange.Peugeot (-0.62% to 19.36 euros) which bought between 12 and 22 August last, about 2% of its capital amounting to 92,010,000 euros, folds to 2.03 %, to 19.01 euros. Renault wins its 0.46% to 26.32 euros.

Total: -0.73% to 32.5 euros

Total expected to present a reorganization in the fall of scale of its operations downstream, with a planned merger of its refining and petrochemicals, according to Les Echos, citing union sources.

As for oil, prices were mixed Friday morning during electronic trading in Asia, in a sluggish market, before the highly anticipated speech of the head of the U.S. central bank (Fed).In morning trading, a barrel of "light sweet crude" for delivery in October gave 10 cents to 85.20 dollars per barrel of Brent North Sea crude for October delivery took 19 cents to 110.81 dollars.

Note that APRR and Bel Cheese (1.24%, to 163 euros) will publish their interim results after market close.

Brussels imposes traceability toys

August 20, 2011 - 3:52 pm Comments Off

The race against time for Christmas toys began. The year 2011 is not easy. In addition to the rising price of raw materials, manufacturers and distributors must manage an additional constraint: the implementation, since July 20, the new European directive on toy safety. This significantly strengthens the requirements. So, in laboratories and offices, the list of requests made to the standards continues to grow … "The timing is not ideal compared to year-end holidays," says Stéphane Azoulai , Vice President Lansay.

The new directive, which replaces a text dating from 1988, strengthens the regulation, including through improved product traceability. Each toy must now be accompanied by his "identity card".Which identifies the entire production chain, from raw material origin to the name of the toy factory where it was manufactured. As for the 'CE' (European Community), it must be printed directly on the product or its label and not only on its packaging.

"The goal is to enable consumers to find out where the toy," says Serge Milon, toy expert at SGS, the world leader in inspection and certification. Mistrust has indeed increased in recent years, the list of suspect products (cadmium, phthalates …) have ceased to grow.

The Directive also takes into account the changing attitudes of children. The markings were made more accessible by using shorter sentences and more punchy ("choking," for example).The new text drummed cards especially among manufacturers, distributors and importers in an area where more than three quarters of the products are manufactured in China. The responsibility for quality and safety, is now shared paydayloan. It no longer lies only to manufacturers.

An implementation guide accompanies the 150-page directive to allow decoding risk analysis, monitoring records … If some importers or distributors may prefer a blind eye to the origin of a particular toy, they could now show zeal. Some will have to conduct additional inspections. "This is monstrous files to provide our clients, Stéphane Azoulai sorry.Some signs are up again test the toys in the laboratory. "

Advantage given to European manufacturers

The cost of the new standards, up from 10% to 20%, also changes the game. It takes 1,000 to 4,000 euros per product, depending on its level of sophistication. Products stored for more than three years must also board safety tests. "When 150 references, it starts to do a lot!" Stéphane Azoulai plague. "These high costs lead us to limit the depth of our range, adds Thierry Bertoux, CEO of Jemini, the French soft toys and furniture for children. It is easier for a multinational company to amortize these costs over several million pieces. "

Some companies have chosen to transform their organization to adapt to the regulations.At Lansay, one person was previously in charge of standards and procurement. A team will soon be established.

If it is more restrictive, the new regulations, however, gives a competitive advantage to European companies, "insofar as it creates barriers to entry," said Thierry Bertoux. "Making cost could lead to compromise at the expense of safety, says Serge Milon. It is a way to make quality and safety of products up by applying best practices. "