Free Mobile has recruited 2.6 million customers

 

In the wake of its entry in the booming mobile market, Free Mobile revealed it had won 2.6 million customers in late March, while Orange was losing 615,000, 620,000 SFR and 89,000 MVNOs. "Never an operator has won as many customers in as little time," said Xavier Niel, founder and owner of Free.

The small sign operator and a great commercial success and won the bet he had set himself. Indeed, he won 4% market share on the mobile in 80 days. Its goal is eventually to have 25% market share.

Satisfaction is complete for Xavier Niel, especially as Free has received the "halo of mobile" on its activities as a fixed, where it now exceeds 5 million subscribers: he recorded a 50% market share recruitment broadband in the first quarter of 2012 and its activity is fixed in 9.8% growth over the quarter. Leaves to change operator in the mobile, and to benefit from even better prices, some customers were quick to switch their internet subscription and exchange their old box against a Freebox.

Impact difficult to quantify

Remains now is whether this success will continue over time, while competitors such as Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Virgin argue that the bleeding has stopped customers since mid-March and they recover even customers parties at Free.

Free, which shows a quarterly revenue up 29% to 656 million euros, did not give the average revenue per user (ARPU), a key figure in the telecoms field. He simply said that customers were divided "balanced" between the subscribers of a subscription to two euros and those who opted for a more profitable subscription to 19.99 euros a month.  

Therefore difficult to measure the impact of the launch of Free Mobile on the margins of the operator. "The quality of the distribution of offers within the mobile subscriber base is evidence of a sustainable business model and economics," Free said simply. In sales, the mobile has generated 97.5 million euros, of which 11.5 million euros from the sale of terminals and 86 million for the telecom services business. The set weighs about him almost 560 million euros.

With such high stakes - such as the future financial well-being of a family - choosing the correct life insurance policy is a very serious decision and one that requires deep thought.

JP Morgan: water mill Regulators

 

"We told you so's you!" For U.S. policy makers who are struggling since 2010 to oversee Wall Street, the announcement of the disappointments of JPMorgan timely. While the final text of the U.S. banking regulation should be adopted in the coming months, the loss comes discredit the speech of one of their most brilliant opponents, the bank manager, Jamie Dimon. The man never tires for months to detail the disastrous economic consequences of a law too narrowly and to question the competence of its authors. "Today's announcement sounds like a strong reminder of the need for regulators to establish effective and stringent rules," he said at the Thursday night Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.

The debate on bank regulation in the United States, born after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, has refocused on the "Volcker rule", named after the former president of the Federal Reserve. This text prohibits banks that collect savings to speculate on their capital. He wants to draw a boundary between the regulated and the banking world of hedge funds, to prevent savers and taxpayers have to pay for reckless risk-taking. Once established, this principle raises numerous issues on which borders falling over for months and policies bankers. Wall Street has already received several exceptions weight. Trading, whose goal is not speculative but is intended to "cover" the risk of a bank, and would currently not affected by the law. Yet it is on this type of operation that JPMorgan has stumbled. Jamie Dimon admitted a hedging strategy "ineffective, poorly controlled, poorly built and all that follows." In short, a technical error, regrettable, but whose realization is possible in a risky world.

A speech inaudible to American politicians who have not forgotten the tens of billions of dollars spent in the bailouts of 2008. The loss of JPMorgan demonstrate the contrary, they argue, the need to extend the legislation. "The enormous loss of JPMorgan provides the latest evidence dated as what banks call" risk coverage "actually corresponds to paris often risky it is not normal that these institutions make systemic scale," said Senator Carl Levin.

Repercussions in France

The standoff will continue in the coming months. Its echoes will reverberate in Eu-rope. While the British have advanced to a strict separation of credit and market, the continent is still in full swing. At the community level, Commissioner Michel Barnier told the Finnish Erkki Liikanen to chair a task force, which should stop the cursor from the reform. Its conclusions are expected in the fall. The new French government should in parallel, and in connection with this commission, quickly present its proposals. Francois Hollande and future Minister of Economy advance probably this summer.

ALSO READ:

"Madrid Bankia ready to bail pending the EU money

"Holland going to tackle its banking reform bill

"Banking regulation: Britain alone

"Savings: the professionals are sounding the alarm

For Greenspan, the shares are cheap

Presidential in major cities Paris | Leeds | Lyons | Toulouse | Leeds | Sheffield | Liverpool | Bordeaux | Lille

U.S.: GDP disappoints consumption reassures

 

From our correspondent in the United States flexes growth in the United States. After a fourth quarter where expansion had reached 3% annual rate, that as the economy slows to 2, 2%. This is slightly less than expected.

A decline in business investment of 2.1% is largely responsible for this disappointing performance moderately. However consumption, traditional locomotive of the U.S. economy, climbed 2, 9%, against 2, only 1% at the end of last year. This is encouraging. And especially since U.S. households saw their moral improvement in April to its highest level since February 2011. Households are optimistic about economic recovery, although they are less confident when it comes to their personal financial situation?

The acceleration of consumption can not only offset the decline in investment, but it also helps to overcome the slowdown in inventory rebuilding. From January to March, rising stocks is liable only for 0, 5% growth yoy.

During the previous period, the increase in inventories was represented more than half of the increase in gross domestic product (GDP). From this perspective, growth in the first quarter seems healthier than October to December, although it is more modest bad credit personal loan lenders.

Decline in military spending

A third unexpected factor slowed the U.S. economy: the decline in military spending. It explains the drop in 5, 6% annual rate of all federal spending, while states and communities continue their part to save money.

"The key factor explaining the worse than expected performance of the economy, the decline is much sharper than expected public expenditure … But that does not reflect at all the health of the economy. It is certainly disappointing that business investment has declined, but this may be temporary, "said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Analytics.

Figures released by the Commerce Department does not seem to alter the waiting position of the Federal Reserve, which plans to leave interest rates to the floor until the end of 2014 .. In reviewing a slight increase to almost 3% growth forecast for the current year, it implicitly rejected for the moment to launch a third round of quantitative easing, ie net purchases of Treasury securities in order to drive down long rates.

The UK does not digest the tax on "meat pies"

 

In Britain the meat pies, meat pies – have been at the heart of a new controversy. When presenting its budget, the government cited a 20% tax on all products made from dough and meat served hot and win. A measure supported by the vendors of fish and chips, which they already pay such VAT and enjoy little competition for bakers. But the press and political opponents of David Cameron were quick to assume that the Prime Minister was out of touch, by lowering taxes on the highest incomes from 50 to 45%, while increasing the price of food of the less favored social classes. To not pass a snob, the curator explained that he was also a "pie eater", recounting his last experience in the upscale Cornwall. But Sun has investigated, and, bad luck, the store is talking about Cameron closed in 2007? Suddenly, the Labour leader Ed Miliband rushed at one of the leading meat pies, chain Greggs. He said the government has downgraded the living standards of the British by all possible means. To show that he himself is close to the people, Miliband himself to offer his team eight turnovers with meat for lunch.

ALSO READ:

"David Cameron

Barack Obama's Energy Revolution

 

The price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump exceeded $ 4 in many parts of the United States. It is a trauma for Americans who drive a lot and often in vehicles big bike.

Pay more than $ 1 per liter, or 17% more than last year, imposed on their budget. The seasonal nature of gasoline demand likely makes one gallon for $ 5 by summer.

54% of Americans believe that their president could do much to combat this trend trim their buying power and weakening growth. The popularity of Barack Obama suffers 65% of voters are unhappy with how it handles this issue. In this busy electoral context, the presidential candidate began a two-day tour in Nevada and New Mexico. His message: "We operate oil fields everywhere: this is why our dependence on imported energy has fallen every year since I was in power."

Barack Obama has abandoned the slogan that has long repeated: "Oil is the energy of the past." It now claims to support all forms of energy production, not just renewables.

"As long as I am president, I will not give the promise of clean energy," he said Wednesday in Nevada on the occasion of his visit to a field of solar panels. Bankruptcy Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels, which received $ 535 million of subsidies, however, undermined the credibility of the presidential message. His promises of thousands of jobs created by "green energy" were not held cheap payday advance.

600,000 jobs created

However, the boom hydraulic fracturing since 2008 has pushed gas production in the United States and depressing prices. Applying this technique to oil shale helps boost crude output at its highest in eight years. Manufacturers responsible for these innovations feel they owe anything to Obama.

Instead, they feel unfairly targeted by the White House. "The Obama administration says it supports the increased production of oil and gas. But it blocked the Keystone XL (which was to supply the Gulf of Mexico oil shale Canadian). It claims to boost domestic production, but permits drilling in federal areas have plunged 44%, "says Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute. "Many more jobs have been created by the boom in oil and gas as" green economy, '"says Daniel Yergin, head of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. It amounts to 600,000 the number of jobs created by this revolution. These figures are echoed by Obama today, marking a dramatic conversion of the President of the benefits of a sector that has long disdained.

ALSO READ:

"In the U.S., jumped behind the boom of solar gas

"Soaring oil prices threaten the recovery again

"The mad rush for black gold in North Dakota

French universities abroad misclassified

 

France is hardly served in international rankings in education. Only four of its representatives are emerging among the 100 institutions classified Thursday morning by the Times Higher Education (THE), a British weekly known for the seriousness of its rankings. France ranks as the seventh largest in the world.

The Paris-Sorbonne University is located between 71st and 80th place of the second international league based on "reputation". It occupied the 91st place last year. Then comes the Polytechnic, which ranks between 91st and 100th place. This year, two new institutions enter the prestigious list: the University Paris-Sud (Orsay) and the University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris VI), both beyond the 91st place.

"France is well represented in these tables, with four institutions in the top 100, more than Canada, and more than double the number of representatives of China. But the country's authorities should be concerned that such a system of higher education with a long tradition of excellence has its highest ranked institution beyond the 71st, well behind the leading institutions in England and Germany "by Phil Baty, the head of the ranking. And the specialist to wonder: "Maybe the current reforms in the French higher education will they do the difference in the longer term, but for now there is much uncertainty and confusion about the French system, which can affect the country's reputation among scholars throughout the world. "

A "business" full

The study measures the reputation of excellence in both teaching and in research by 117,554 educators from 137 countries. Given a choice between 6000 and institutions were asked what were the best institutions in their field of specialty. The issue of reputation is important in the era of the internationalization of education, as universities compete with each other to attract the best students. And they are buying more and more a "brand" when they enroll in an institution. It has become a "business" in its own right, according to THE.

The first six of the classification, called "super brands" in the study because they crush all others because of their notoriety, are again American universities Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the English university of Cambridge, two new American, Stanford and Berkeley, and Oxford. These universities' dominate the head and shoulders above the other institutions, "the study said.

The U.S. dominates with 44 institutions which are among the first hundred, ten are British, and five are Japanese. Five others were Dutch. Followed by Germany, Australia and France, each with four institutions.

The beef recipe is no longer in France

 

The livestock industries are less imitators. If the country has the first cattle in Europe with 21 million head of which 8 million cows, the trend is downward. Within a year, the number of cattle farms has declined by nearly 6% from 246,000 in 2009 to 232,000 in 2010.

For reasons of revenue and less arduous, farmers already settled prefer to shift to other crops. "It is easier to return a field to a culture of wheat and rapeseed that raising animals on the same surface, said Jean-Pierre Fleury, secretary general of the Federation Nationale Bovine. It's more profitable and it requires less work. "

Indeed, the average income of a farmer is three times lower than that of a grain. According to latest statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, the first earns 14,700 euros per year when the second receives over 47,000 euros. Those who want to settle as farmers think twice before so to do.

"These are big capital investments, EUR 1,500 for a cow on average, plus the cost of buildings and work constraints that are not up to the sums involved," says Marie-Therese Bonneau, a farmer in the Vendee .

New markets

At the head of a herd of 100 cattle, Maria Theresa Bonneau understands why the business is no longer recipe. "It makes money only when one retires, waiting must make ends meet and generate cash to pay bills," she says. The job of producer thus raises fewer vocations among young people. "The animal is too restrictive, I head for the forest," says Jonathan, a student at AgroTechParis.

The livestock sector as a whole suffer from other disabilities: the industry's first transformation only to renovate its facilities, the number of slaughterhouses is too important. In addition, this industry does not know the answer to market demand. "The French slaughterers are not able to meet the specifications of buyers, says Pascal Cousté, farm advisor throughout France. Particularly regarding the rate of fat from meat and health standards. "

In the case of pork French example, this translates into an additional cost in the industrial process by 5%. Result: supermarkets, but also the industrial processing, will source outside France, where competition is able to offer lower prices.  

However, the growth of world consumption of about 15% per year, providing a market for breeders. The increase in living standards in emerging countries like China and Brazil offset the decline in red meat consumption observed in developed countries. "New markets are opening to us, in the Mediterranean arc of the Maghreb, Turkey and also in Russia," said Peter Knight, President of the Federation Nationale Bovine. In the beef sector, the share of French production destined for export, now more than 5%, and falls on the rise in recent years.

ALSO READ:

"The five major challenges of the next five-year farm

"Calling the earth is receiving more and more conversions

Burger King will make his return to France

 

Good news for fans of Whoppers. Fifteen years after leaving France, Burger King returns. According Procos, the federation of specialized retail chains, the giant fast food restaurants will soon open in the new commercial center of the Gare Saint-Lazare. Moreover, according to our information, the sign should also open this year on highway: its first store could be located in Reims, on A4 or on the ASF network which also operates the A 9 between Avignon and Perpignan A 7 or the south of Lyon. Representatives of the sign would also contacted APRR, which operates, among others, the A 6 between Paris and Lyon. But no contract has been signed so far with this network, making it impossible to open before 2013. In the latter two cases, the brand of gas stations Avia would manage these concessions.

Questioned, Burger King recognizes continuing study opportunities to develop in different countries, including France. But his spokesman refused to give more information. Side of Autogrill, which manages 75% of the restoration of St. Lazarus, the CEO in France ensures that Burger King does not open on March 21 for the opening of the mall from the station, nor later than 2012 . The time is propitious yet. "The expenses of the French in fast food rose 4% last year, said Christine Tartanson, Foodservice Director at NPD Group. This is one of the segments of the fastest growing food. Burger King should take into account consumption habits of the French, by proposing a sweetened offer in addition to burgers. "

Industrial jobs: when the government gets involved

 

The intervention of Nicolas Sarkozy to save Alstom in summer 2004, to his recent statements in favor of employees of ArcelorMittal Florange site, the head of state has been well arise in the opponent's famous statement Lionel Jospin: "The state can not do everything." At least when it comes to industrial employment. "We must at all costs strangle the flow of blood Industrial France," he repeated again in January. Since 2007, the government frequently intervened in several disputes, most often publicized in order to save jobs. A few weeks before the presidential election, the employees do not hesitate to use the campaign to make their demands heard. Overview of some government promises … and their future.

The success

• Photowatt. The resumption of French pioneer of photovoltaics by EDF no longer in doubt. Next Monday, the commercial court of Vienna should assign the assets of Photowatt to the public company called to the rescue by the Head of State at the end of January. Previously, STMicroelectronics, specialized microprocessors, had been approached. Without success. The next upturn of the SME Isère by EDF Energies Nouvelles is good news for employees: the subsidiary of the electrician has pledged to resume on 430 and 345 to reclassify within 60 km of the 85 remaining employees. "Everybody has a job, I do not see what you could get any better," responded Tuesday a Steward FW, while conceding that "the industrial project is to build". According to the UMP Bourgoin, Alain Moyne-Bressan, must already "put 50 million euros on the table for the coming months."

• Lejaby. Mid-January 2012, the Tribunal de Commerce de Lyon chose Alain Prost, former manager of La Perla and Chantelle, as the buyer of the manufacturer of linen placed in receivership. Only problem: the entrepreneur, who keeps only about 450 195 employees, wants to relocate the entire production in Tunisia. This is sign the death warrant of the factory Lejaby Yssingeaux, and the dismissal of his 93 employees. An announcement of the worst effect when the candidate Nicolas Sarkozy – not yet declared – boasts the "Made in France". "I will not let down the people of Lejaby," he warned on January 29. It is ultimately the luxury group LVMH, requested by the Elysee, which will come to the aid of the factory from Auvergne. The takeover bid, from a subcontractor for Louis Vuitton, the company Sofama, was filed on February 1. All staff should be re-employed on permanent contracts, and converted into luxury leather goods.  

Failures:

• Gandhinagar. February 4, 2008, the Head of State gives hope to the 595 employees of ArcelorMittal factory in Lorraine, then threatened with partial closure in the near future. "The State prefers to invest in modernizing the site rather than paying people to go with either early retirement or unemployed," he explained then. He continued: "I will myself announce it has found the solution." If, despite these promises, 595 jobs will actually be discontinued from 31 March 2009, the city of Gandhinagar, however, benefited from a state investment of 5 million for a learning center, and a contract worth 300 million euros between RFF and the steelmaker Corus. Objective: To produce the rails RFF within its Hayange plant, near the disaster site.

"Nicolas Sarkozy in Gandhinagar:

……