The rates of Italian government bonds soar

Announced the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi has clearly not been enough to reassure long-term markets. In Europe, stock markets, which had initially welcomed the news quickly made an about face. The distrust of the Italian public debt continues to grow, in fact. The Italian 10-year rate rose to over 7%, a new record level and a completely untenable for the country, given the weight of its debt. For its part, Brussels ruled that the Italian situation was "very worrying". At the same time, the spread between government bonds and German to French reached a new peak at 1.47%.

In Greece, things also accelerating.Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced his resignation but did not mention the name of his successor will not be announced until Thursday. A further meeting of party leaders was convened by the President.

On the macroeconomic front, crude oil inventories fell 1.4 million barrels to 338.1 million barrels during the week ended Nov. 4. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a rise rather 700,000 barrels.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro fell sharply against the dollar on Wednesday. The euro was worth 1.3552 dollars against 1.3836 dollars late Tuesday. Oil prices ended down more than 1% in New York tonight. On the Nymex, the December contract on West Texas Intermediate (WTI) ended on a loss of $ 1.06, or 1.1%, to 95.74 dollars a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent yielded 2.23%, or 2.56 dollars to 112.48 dollars.

But these tracks did not result: competitors were primarily interested in the brand Arthur D. Little, well known, at the same time alienating the teams.A complex equation, in a world of service where the value of the firm is keen to its consultants.

Altran, which publishes this morning's quarterly revenue, could take the opportunity to announce the opening of exclusive negotiations. According to the proposed scheme, the group would agree a loan managers to its subsidiary, deficit in 2010, so they fund the recovery. To secure this commitment, the brand remains the property of Altran until the loan is repaid. This will result in a depreciation in the accounts of the group. Until this summer, it hoped to sell its subsidiary to 70 million euros. The transaction amount will be much less. Altran in 2002 had bought the European operations of U.S. giant Board Arthur D. Little. This acquisition has not been successful due to lack of synergies between parent and subsidiary.In the first half, the group has cut 39 million the value of Arthur D. Little in his accounts. Contacted by Le Figaro, Altran declined to comment.

This show is held every two years alternating with Paris Doha in Qatar, is the child of September 11 and terrorist attacks in the United States. "Although he was born in 1984 but in 2003 the concept of homeland security market has emerged differing from the defense market itself," says Alain Rondepierre prefect, president of the show. Milipol also aims to provide solutions in the fight against crime, interventions in hostile environments – infected or affected by natural disasters – as well as the operations of public safety and law enforcement as well road safety, port and airport.And wider border surveillance.

A growing market

Customers come from public and private horizon: business as head of sensitive sites such as nuclear power plants, police forces (in the field, scientific) and emergency preparedness (fire, miners, rescuers …), gendarmerie, customs, airports, government agencies (FBI, Home Office …), the Ministries of Interior and Defence equipment because some applications have mixed civilian and military.

In total the global market for security at large weighs 420 billion euros (+5.5% in 2010), the survey published in the Atlas of Safely, the newspaper of record on the subject. The market is dominated by the United States with 30% of the world but Asia is gaining ground (23% against 14% of expenditures in 2001).For its part, Israel Export Institute believes that the only market "homeland security" weighs 170 billion and it increased by 7 to 8% per year.

On these growth markets, France has several champions. Morpho, the world leader in biometric identification since the purchase of American L1, used by over 100 countries and 450 organizations such as the FBI, the Israeli police and Interpol. Morpho is a specialist in such border crossing facilities at airports. "Faced with evolving threats, we must provide answers to more sophisticated, more effective are not too expensive and that thin the border crossing. For example, we went from detection to the identification of explosives, "said Didier Bernard, Executive Vice President of Morpho.Soon there will be no need to register to use the Initials successor that allows holders of biometric passports to cross the border control without queuing.

For its part, Thales relies on its leadership in information systems, to provide answers to the problems generated by "urbanization". This "requires cities smarter and therefore supported by systems that can facilitate decision-making in complex environments," said Luc Vigneron, Chairman of Thales. The group from Mexico won the first contract of its kind with its offer to secure Hypervisor this city of 22 million people, plagued by violence. In addition to large groups, SMEs, supported by some Directorate General of Armaments, engage in an orgy of creativity.Overview of some of the novelties of Milipol 2011.

Some products presented at Milipol, the first international exhibition of security

• Cobra – A range of robotic vehicles (see above)

Developed by ECA, one of three subsidiaries of the SME Gorge, the Cobra Bubble is a ground vehicle robotic intelligent. Its onboard camera is covered with a protective bubble antiéboulement that does not stop to see day and night to 360 degrees. The vehicle of 40 cm square weighs 5 kg. It can be equipped with a gun to remove the mines. He drives up to 300 m away from a touch pad or joystick. Its mission: to make tracking and filming in hostile environments or contaminated or monitoring sensitive sites such as nuclear power plants. Gorged sells 100,000 a year.

• Millicam 90 – Sees Through Walls

The progresison remains very cautious. U.S. operators, like their counterparts in Europe and Asia, remain very concerned about the issue of sovereign debt in Europe. They fear a contagion to other countries considered fragile in the euro area.The decision of Standard & Poor's lowered by one notch to "A +" to "A" note of Italy, due to low growth prospects, has just added to the failure of the meeting this weekend of European Ministers of Finance have failed to agree on a new loan to Greece, still under the threat of default.

The question of the future of Greece will remain central today. In Athens, after an initial conference call Monday night, a new meeting between the Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos and representatives of the troika of the country's creditors, European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, to be held tonight . Their verdict depends on the payment in October of $ 8 billion from the loan made last year in the euro area country and the IMF.Manna vital for the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

Pending around the Fed meeting

Hopes for recovery of the market, worried about the economic downturn hitting the United States and Europe, are now placed in the meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) which starts today and will end tomorrow.

The fears are in fact more and more vivid on the other side of the Atlantic, where Barack Obama announced a plan to further reduce the deficit of 3000 billion Monday, financed half by an increase in taxes for the rich, did not produce any relief.

On the macroeconomic front, the U.S., housing construction has increased its decline in August, falling to its lowest level since May, according to official figures published Tuesday in Washington.

Mergers and acquisitions continue

The side of values, the French computer group Bull and American Technologies CA (0.09% to 21.24 dollars) Tuesday announced an alliance to facilitate the switching of heterogeneous enterprise IT infrastructures to the Internet and the "cloud" ( cloud computing).

The Internet giant Google (-0.10% to 546.12 dollars) bought DailyDeal, German site group purchasing established in 2009 business cards design. Google, which offers this service for U.S. consumers, seeking to expand its presence outside the United States to reach the largest number of users and compete with its rivals in the field as Groupon.The amount of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The U.S. stock market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) encourages U.S. companies to transparency regarding their income abroad, reports the Financial Times. The SEC, which has made this his new battle cry, drew particular groups such as Dow Chemical (-0.73% to 27.54 dollars) or Caterpillar (-0.28% to 84.36 dollars) share more information with investors.

After the close of Wall Street, Air Products (0.10% to 81.66 dollars) has announced a new share repurchase program of $ 1 billion.

The mergers and acquisitions also continue to multiply.According to reports the Times, Blackstone (-0.45% to 13.26 dollars) would buy with Prestige Brands of America (-0.73% to 9.46 dollars), a portfolio of non-prescription drugs worth £ 2 billion, owned by GlaxoSmithKline (0.07% to 41.54 dollars).

Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc. (0.90% to 44.13 dollars) and Azur Pharma Ltd. (will merge to create Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc, a pharmaceutical company based in Ireland and listed on NASDAQ.

Also in the pharmaceutical sector, Varian Medical Systems (1.16% to 53.05 dollars) will buy Calypso Medical Technologies, a company specializing in monitoring tumors during operations radiosurgery and radiotherapy for $ 10 million and contingent payments.

However, ConAgra Foods (0.21% to 23.44 dollars) withdrew its offer of Ralcorp Holdings (-0.23% to 75.06 dollars) due to "lack of constructive dialogue with Ralcorp."

Others are preparing to pass the act as Home Properties (-5.61 to 58.70 dollars) will conduct a capital increase of 5.25 million additional shares to finance "its external growth and new real estate development projects. "

Also note, a Court of Appeal in the United States lifted a court order blocking the payment of compensation of $ 18 billion by Chevron (-0.69% to 98.03 dollars) for environmental damage in the Amazon.

In addition, three complaints were filed against IBM (+0.11% to 173.32 dollars) from the European competition authorities, including one by a French company, have been abandoned, it was reported on Tuesday the European Commission.

This company, founded ten years ago by the former secretary general of the CFDT, Nicole Notat, analyzed the performance of 539 European companies listed on non-discrimination in employment.She also compared how these 363 companies had managed the restructuring that had taken during the crisis.

In both cases, France takes the lead of countries that best meet the basic standards set by the International Labour Organization (ILO) concerning freedom of association, prohibition of forced labor and child employment seniors … "This does not mean that French companies have no way to go, but just that they behave better than others," Nicole Notat nuance.

Danone number one

To note the management of corporate restructuring and practice of non-discrimination, the bloodhounds of Vigeo analyzed their managerial systems based on three items: the relevance of political behavior, the consistency of their deployment and effective results.Finally, French firms are better informed and consulted, where social, employee representatives "before and during the restructuring process."

No fewer than four of them are in the top 10 most responsible companies: Danone (ranking first), PSA Peugeot Citroën, Bonduelle and Total. French companies are also those who have best implemented "effective measures to prevent and limit layoffs" and made "steps to mitigate the negative effects of layoffs on employees, including measures to return to work" . Better than their German or Dutch, who monopolize the second and third places on the podium, and Austrian firms, Irish and Greek … that close to the bench.

Issue non-discrimination (access and job retention of the most vulnerable, improving working conditions, training, career …), French companies are doing just as well with no fewer than four of them also in the top 10: PSA Peugeot Citroën again, Rhodia, EDF and TF1. By country, France is ahead of Belgium and the Netherlands, far ahead of Ireland, the UK and Denmark … that appear at the end of ranking. "We knew that the behavior of firms are influenced by national legislation and sectoral affiliations, note Benseddik Fouad, director of Vigeo methods. But this study shows that social responsibility is the leadership position and ability to dialogue that make the difference. "In short, the involvement of the entrepreneur.

Devices iOS archive their data on Wi-Fi and 3G. Photo credits: Kimihiro HOSHINO / AFP

Worldwide, software piracy generates a shortfall of 44 billion and ten billion for Europe alone. The United States is the country where the loss in value is most important, accounting for 7.1 billion euros. But in some "small" European countries, legislation and a little flexible when the market is still underdeveloped, the piracy rate is approaching 70%, as in Bulgaria or Romania.More generally, emerging markets are at a peak, with a piracy rate 2.5 higher than in mature markets, with a total value estimated at 21.7 billion euros.

At the head office and messaging

Pirated software the most concern the office and mail systems. What makes Microsoft the publisher the most penalized. Exposure correlated with its market share. The case of misuse is the most common deployment abusive (a company buys a license for 100 PCs and installs it on 200). "Cases of pure piracy, with the use of unlicensed software, are more rare," says Eric Beaurepaire.

This does not prevent users or even entire departments of large private companies fraudulently install software on their devices, possibly bypassing the procedures established by IT departments."Such practices can have dramatic consequences for societies. Pirated software can be corrupted with viruses … "insists Eric Beaurepaire. Not to mention the risk of financial penalties for the company.

Departments also

In France, where industry, technical fields and those related to the creation on the Internet appear to be less virtuous, no area is spared, not even the utility or ministries! Moreover, there is no real correlation between the rate of software piracy and its price. The most expensive are not necessarily the most coveted.Thus, security software, which does not always worth a score of euros, are not copied less than for professionals, which can be worth several thousand euros.

Paradoxically, the French might be followers of illegal copying, they say they are also very sensitive to the respect of intellectual property. A poll conducted by Ipsos for the BSA found that 68% of French people support the remuneration of inventors the world average is 71%. Aware of the risks of "software purchased on the street or" borrowed "between friends", the French, however, not hesitate to perform multiple installations, they do not perceive a real fraud.The advantages of software legally acquired access to technical assistance, protection against intruders … not enough to convince either the French users, less sensitive than the rest of the world to these arguments.

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The clarifications concern the concept of exact dividend taken into account. It will not be the total amount of dividends paid, but the dividend per share. The scope of company concerned has also been refined: in a group, it will be the parent. Thus, if the dividend paid by the parent increases relative to the average of the previous two years, all the subsidiaries and dependent must pay the premium. They display or not benefits rise.For groups present in France but whose head office is abroad, the measure will apply to employees in France so the "highest parent situated on French territory" has increased its dividend.

Another clarification: it is possible, by collective agreement, to offer employees something other than cash free credit report and score. The "premium" for example, could give the appearance of a surplus or profit participation, an assumption of a mutual or a bonus share issue. Only principles: the benefit must be made public (that is to say, to benefit all employees and not to certain categories), pecuniary (it must be equivalent to a sum of money) and new (it should not have been granted previously).

For the rest, nothing changes.The amount and terms of the premium must be negotiated within the company, under the same conditions as the participation or incentive. And failing agreement with the organizations representing the staff, for setting out is only for company management. No company with over 50 employees will benefit from exemptions. The premium will be exempt from normal social security contributions – but subject to 8% of CSG-CRDS and 6% social package – up to a ceiling of 1,200 euros. As at the date of entry into force: this year.

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In prime time, the programming feature designed by the world's richest television, attracts 291,000 viewers on average, only 17% more than the emissions that Discovery has dropped to make room for this joint venture to 50 % with Oprah Winfrey.It is the first attempt to climb a chain around the aura of a personality.

Oprah Winfrey and Discovery remain optimistic. Provided their goal of break-even point in the first year of operation of the channel seems increasingly elusive.

Discovery has agreed in any case to inject 50 million dollars in the project this year. An amount in addition to the 189 million already invested during the preparatory phase to launch OWN, which lasted nearly three years.

Wrath of the "queen"

According to the press in the gossip of the media world, "the queen of talk show" was angry after a series of meetings with colleagues, alarmed by the poor viewing figures cash advance. "I built this system with my own hands, I expect all those who are employed here work hard for the next two years.If the audience rating does not take off soon, heads will fall, "shouted the imposing Oprah Winfrey.

First decision to boost its ratings, OWN announces six new series of programs. These documentaries or reality television productions. "Confronting …" for example, presents the efforts of crime victims to face their attackers.Both parties try to experience each other overcome their trauma.

Another program "Unfaithful: Stories of Betrayal" (Infidel: Stories of treason) shows how couples torn by adultery manage to save their relationship with the help of a therapist.

These original programs are supposed to support the public's attention before the "queen" in no more come in September consistently lead the interviews and documentaries on its own channel.

Indeed, paradoxically, the great "talk show" Oprah's syndicated on hundreds of different channels are not broadcast on OWN. Its latest edition, scheduled on May 25, looks spectacular. Oprah calls on advertisers not less than one million dollars for an advertisement of thirty seconds.