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Bad timing for Facebook. After the first listing of the giant online social networks, which received a mixed reception in the market, the site is subject to a complaint partnership or "class action". Filed in San Jose, California, the "class action" includes 21 cases of U.S. Internet users complaining of an invasion of their privacy. They blame Facebook for continuing to collect data on their online browsing after they leave the site.

The Wiretap Act, the U.S. law on eavesdropping, provides for "damages up to $ 100 per person per day and up to 10,000 dollars a Facebook user," says the complaint. At a rate of 800 million Internet users concerned, the amount required to Facebook miliards reached 15 dollars, or more than 11 billion euros.  

The plaintiffs wish to raise in their "class action" all Americans who have opened a Facebook account between May 2010 and September 2011, reports Bloomberg. They also seek to find ways to involve Internet users living outside the U.S..

Regular controversies on confidentiality rules

Because the class action brought hope to have a copy guaranteed cash advance. "It is not only an action for damages, but a trial on the rules of online privacy that should be a landmark," said David Straite, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in Bloomberg.  

A spokesman for Facebook, meanwhile, responded that the allegations of the plaintiffs were unfounded and that the company would contest them.

Facebook is regularly the subject of controversy over its confidentiality rules change often and easily mastered by its undefined users. In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg apologized for airing personal network users to advertising agencies. Last year, the group was forced to accept a confidentiality imposed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). But in February, Facebook was accused of spying on its users SMS Android application.

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The anticoagulant Plavix, Sanofi's flagship drug, loses its patent on Thursday the United States. Although long-expected, this is a difficult stage for the championship tricolor pharmacy. The arrival of generics is usually depressing sales of an original drug by 80% within months. However, in 2011, sales of Plavix in the United States accounted for 4.8 billion euros. In accounting terms, the decline in sales will have no impact on the accounts of the champion tricolor because the marketing of its flagship product is provided by the U.S. laboratory BMS.

The benefit of Sanofi will, however, heavily impacted. In 2012, the group's net profit will suffer an impact of 1.4 billion euros, due to the loss of U.S. patents on two products, Aprovel / Avapro in March and especially Plavix May 17, announced Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi in February.

Plavix had already lost its patent protection in Europe. But its total turnover in 2011 reached 7 billion euros. This made so ephemeral, without doubt, the top-selling drug in the world, after the cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, sold by Pfizer, has lost its patent protection last November.

Clopidogrel, the active ingredient used for generic for Plavix and marketed by the French lab is fully produced Sisteron (04). However, the laboratory will manufacture other chemical molecules, which means that 500 jobs are not threatened by the loss of U.S. patent for Plavix, Sanofi sure.  

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

The agenda is filled Francois Hollande. Two weeks after his election to the French Presidency, and one week after taking office, the new head of state will visit on May 23, at an extraordinary meeting of EU leaders to discuss ways to boost growth in Europe without ceasing to fight against public deficits and debt. A date has been announced on Twitter by the President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy.

Wednesday, May 23, Will Be the date of our informal dinner of Heads of State or Government. # EUCO

– Herman Van Rompuy (@ euHvR) May 8, 2012

This dinner will prepare the EU summit on 28 and 29 June next, and open the outline of a debate on growth, crediting the message supported by Francois Hollande during his presidential campaign of saying that the austerity alone can not get out the Europe of the crisis. According to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, "many proposals (Commission) are on the table and waiting for the green light from Member States and Parliament. While the return to growth will take time, we could reach a turning point at the end of the year if the right decisions are taken now. "

Growth, yes, but how?

Because the situation is serious in Europe no faxing pay day loans. The Greek political earthquake this weekend shook the whole euro-zone. The spectrum of an output of Athens in the euro area returns and fears of a precedent is being felt. For bankruptcy and return to the drachma could then contaminate Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy and France. In Spain, the situation is alarming. And France, the passage of the political right to left removes an ally to Germany. Francois Hollande and his socialist political concern in the midst of crisis.

Europe, which as a whole is obviously to revive its growth, however, is not yet agreement on how to get there. For Francois Hollande, we must create Eurobonds. No question, the German chancellor. French side, advocates strengthening the European investment bank to support major projects. Okay, they reply the Rhine. However, it remains unthinkable for Angela Merkel to touch the Treaty nor the EU fiscal role of the ECB. Negotiations are open.

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The principle of constant allowance

The allocation is a constant option contract of life insurance. This smooths market fluctuations by defining a distribution of amounts paid life insurance contract between the different media that he is leaning. The allocation principle thus applies to contracts linked life insurance.

Namely: in some cases, the allocation is also called constant distribution constant.

The operation of the constant allocation

The insured must determine its profile management, in deciding to assign to each holder a percentage of total capital. Thus, when losses are recognized following a stock movement, arbitration is automatically performed to rebalance the distribution of capital of the insured.

For example, suppose a contract of life insurance of € 10,000 allocated to fund 50% in euros and 50% unit-linked shares. After a year, the accounting units have experienced a gain of 10% and the euro fund a 3% gain. The contract contains so now € 5,500 units of account and funds in euros € 5,150 or € 10,650 in total. It is distributed to 52% unit-linked funds and 48% in euros.

The initial distribution intended by the insured is no longer respected: the contract is more exposed than expected stock market risk. The difference can of course get bigger every year. The option allows you to return to the desired proportion, 50% / 50%, to maintain the desired level of risk low interest rate personal loans.

Subscribe constant allowance

When subscribing to a multichannel contract, the insured may request an allowance optional subscription constant. It is however also possible for an insured to apply for the allocation constant during the contract. Therefore, it must determine its management profile based on several parameters:

-The frequency of rebalancing,

-The media involved in the arbitration,

-The threshold at which the arbitration takes place.

Note: often give rise to arbitrage costs. The constant allocation option is no exception to the rule.

Advantages and disadvantages of the constant allocation

The main advantage of the constant allocation is that it allows management to determine automatically matched to a profile. But it also helps secure the capital gains generated on the stock market by assigning them to more stable carriers.

The main drawback remains the systematic allocation constant, in the event of significant market fluctuations, can generate a lot of arbitration costs.  

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Lactalis and its milk producers finally bury the hatchet. After several months of tensions, the global dairy products (Lactel, President, Galbani) reached an agreement Monday with representatives of its 14,500 producers, who collect five billion liters of milk. It took the intervention of the Ombudsman for agricultural trade relations as they agree to contracts that govern their trade relations now. Several calls to order the Minister of Agriculture have also been required to bend Lactalis. Among its competitors, including Bongrain or Danone, contracts have already been cordoned off.

The stakes are high. This is to prepare the end of milk quotas by 2015. Contracting business relationships between manufacturers and milk producers has been decided by the law of modernization of agriculture. Until then, these relationships worked on oral agreements, valid from generation to generation, and producers were paid on a monthly basis.

Reorganization of the sector

After several meetings, Lactalis and its producers have agreed on an "operating agreement". The Laval group is pleased to have offered "one of (the contract) most successful of the profession." It mainly offers "free transferability of the contract", the "no-monthly-payment imposed deliveries and settlement of supplies of milk in two monthly installments."

Especially, Lactalis has water in his wine, because the group now recognizes organizations (POs) as partners in the negotiations low fee payday loans. So far, the group wanted Laval to negotiate individually with producers, who feared an unfavorable balance of power.

A decree endorsing the creation of these organizations should be published shortly. OP local and regional associations of POs could coexist. Meanwhile, we must "work structuring" of these future producer organizations, Franck believes Guehennec, coordinator of the producer group Lactalis. "This is what one looks forward," he added.

Producers may elect by April 30 whether to integrate the OP. Still, many discussions always take place at industry level, such as on indicators for each company to fix the price of milk.

The agreement between Lactalis and its producers comes at a time of profound change in the sector, phase concentration, particularly in cooperatives. The number of farms (75,000 in total in France) is expected to decline over the coming years. Experts estimate that between 4,000 and 5,000 farms are disappearing each year as part of alliances, dispositions or retirements. These movements should also allow the emergence of true French champions.

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The revolution of the gas in the U.S. is running. By midweek, the price of natural gas in New York reached a record low, at less than $ 2 million BTUs (British thermal unit) – the international measure equivalent to 28 m3 of gas. Not since ten years ago to find such a price. The particularly mild climate this winter and falling demand support this decline in prices, but they do not explain everything.

"There are six to seven years, the magnitude of the reserves of shale gas across the Atlantic was largely unknown. Today, operators have mastered better and better their production and extract larger quantities with less drilling, exposes Olivier Rech, cofounder of investment consultant Energy Funds Advisors. Meanwhile, even when they go out of oil, they get associated gas. Under these conditions, the abundance of supply weighs on prices. "

This new situation gives ideas to operators. GDF Suez for example, could invest in the downstream side of the Atlantic, that is to say to provide gas, liquefy it and send it to other markets. However, an investment directly in the production in the U.S. is not on the agenda, warned Jean-Marie Dauger, Executive Vice President of the GDF Suez, in charge of Global Gas and LNG (LNG).

Concentration for

In general, the French group makes it clear that a gas supply in North America is based primarily on a prospective scenario. Understood: the market test medium-term guide strategic choices.

In Asia, Mitsubishi Corporation is also exploring several alternatives. After acquiring 40% in February from a field of shale gas in Canada Encana, the Japanese company is considering a giant project (€ 10 billion investment about) LNG production in British Columbia, the west. Several partners are in discussions, including Shell and Korean Korea Gas – who buys every year 30 million tons of LNG.

This situation of depressed gas prices in North America Will it continue permanently? "Above all, this situation is abnormal. In most regions in the U.S., gas prices are now below production costs. Under these conditions, many are fragile and gas operators in the two to three years ahead, there could be a phenomenon of concentration, says Olivier Rech. The revolution of the gas in the United States will therefore damage among companies.

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Corsairfly becomes … Corsair International. "A change but not revolution," agrees Pascal de Izaguirre, CEO of the airline of TUI. The leaders of the giant European Tourism chose a facelift to revive the company acquired by Nouvelles Frontieres in 1990 when Jacques Maillot was at the controls. At the time it was called Corse Air International

.

Everything has changed since: the German TUI shareholder meeting in France Marmara Tourinter, New Frontiers and renamed the airline Corsairfly stripped a quarter of its workforce … He has invested hundreds of millions of euros to transform the old a charter company whose regular cabs devices have been fully refurbished mid-2013 with a budget of 36 million euros.

Financially, the subsidiary of TUI could not afford a complete change of name: "Rather than spend a fortune to switch brands, it is better to devote resources to what the customer appreciates the ground or on board" , says Pascal de Izaguirre CEO of Corsair International.  

Erase the image and low-cost charter

A budget of 2.5 million euros will be spent on change of visual identity (logo creation, uniforms, aircraft painting). The first plane scratched white and blue logo of the retro graphics will be delivered in July. The other six, including two new A 330 will follow until mid-April 2013.

But another reason is given by the CEO of Corsairfly to explain the lack of boldness in the choice of name: "The Corsair brand is extremely well known. Hostesses and stewards are known to be friendly and smiling. "The old company Nouvelles Frontieres is certainly an image associated with cheap, but also a Spartan comfort payday loans direct lenders.

"Corsair will celebrate its 31 anniversary this year, little known company such longevity, defends Pascal de Izaguirre. Many have disappeared, new arrivals are. We remove the "fly" but also the name of "smiley" logo TUI, not to hide our group membership, but to erase anything that might suggest the charter or low cost. "…. ….

The team of TUI wants to play the card of elegance, high quality services, while remaining competitive on price. The number of seats "open sea" (comparable to a business class) increases from 24 to 36 in the Boeing 747 and 18 to 26 in the A 330. "We have invested heavily in-flight services, airport lounges to Orly, Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort de France, and soon the meeting …"

New destinations

The relaunch of the company scheduled two years ago falls to one of the worst periods through which the world of air: the rates are low while the cost of jet fuel has stabilized at a very high level that weakens companies.

"This does not undermine our vision and direction, says the CEO of TUI France. We are currently addressing the structural problems of the company and it is not challenged by economic factors. TUI, our shareholder, has powerful resources. He made a choice that takes the long term. "

Corsair International will also review its destinations in September, the company will cease to serve Miami. Instead it will open a line to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, a destination that has grown 15% since the beginning of the year.

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A few weeks before the start of the tourist season in Greece, industry professionals are concerned about given the country's image abroad. The clashes that broke out between police and demonstrators, repeated strikes in public transport and the crisis affecting the economy, trade and health, greatly tarnish the reputation of "Mediterranean paradise" Greece had so far.

For Francoise Deschamps, Director of Travel Agency Profile in Athens, it is a bad trial because the country. "Violence is not the nature of the Hellenes. There are fewer demonstrations and strikes if they only last a few hours when it comes to archaeological sites. The Acropolis is always accessible to all, "protested she.  

Lower prices

While acknowledging that bookings were down this summer, Francoise Deschamps makes a point of honor to overcome stereotypes, "apart from the American Express (which is rarely accepted because traders are unwilling to pay 7% commission) you can pay everywhere with a credit card or a Visa. No need to bring cash into oneself. Distributors are always stocked, "she says.

The large luxury resort with beach, private pool and gourmet restaurant at the guesthouse, hoteliers were for the most part, forced to lower room rates and offer additional services to each reservation. "Our prices have dropped by at least 20%," says Adrian Vassilikos, director of Airotel, owns six hotels in the country. If the crisis is especially hoteliers, because of increased taxes and reduced bookings, Adrien Vassilikos remains confident: "Tourists know that Athens, like the rest of the country, is one of the most safest in the world. No risk of terrorism or crime. The crisis has not increased the number of pickpockets. To this we must add that in case of accident or illness, we have very capable hospitals, providing care free and urgency, "he said quick cash.

Of solidarity

Tourism is the second largest economic sector in the country, representing 17% of GDP, after shipping. In 2011, Greece has benefited more or less the effect of revolutions and Arab tourism, compared to the previous year, increased by 10%. This year, some professionals rely on the solidarity towards Greece, shot by the crisis. This movement is gaining ground worldwide and in all sectors. Twenty major Greek groups, as the airline Aegean or Coca-Cola Hellenic, even financed full-page newspaper ads French, German, Dutch, Belgian and British. Under the slogan "give a chance to Greece", these advertisers show a country in flux, despite its economic vicissitudes.

A bank of tourism in the study

To improve the competitiveness of the tourism sector, the Greek government uses the aid of the "task force". This working group of the European Commission, whose representatives are installed in the Greek capital, shook the tourism industry. "Being competitive yes, but then to build infrastructure for mass tourism, there is a margin," worries Francoise Deschamps, Director of Travel Agency Profile. "Greece is a country that fits the needs of every tourist. You can still find himself alone on a beach, eating in a tavern or family homestay accommodation is unique and should not destroy it for the sake of competitiveness, "she adds. Several projects are in preparation at the Ministry of Finance including the creation of a bank or tourist development projects of ancient sites, remote islands from Piraeus or agricultural areas.

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"It took us a while to get to the current situation. We will need some time to get out, "said Meg Whitman, arrived at the helm of HP five months ago. She spoke Wednesday night to mark the publication of first quarter results (ended Jan. 31) group.

Quarterly net income fell 44% to $ 1.5 billion, for a turnover down 7%, to $ 30 billion. The group anticipates a further decline in sales for the current quarter, weighed down by falling sales of PCs and printers. These divisions are still suffering the consequences of statements by the former CEO, Leo Apotheker, who suggested last August that HP would stop producing PC. To this were added the shortage of hard drives, a result of floods in Thailand, and the economic downturn. Finally, the PC division and tablets (PSG) has seen its sales drop by 15% in value and 18% by volume. This decline is likely to cost in addition to HP's leading position worldwide PC. The U.S. could be dethroned in the coming months by China's Lenovo. The direction of HP also noted the weak consumer demand for printers and evoked a reorganization of this division that has long been the cash cow of the group. For the current year, Meg Whitman still expects a profit of $ 6.3 billion.

Reduce expenses

"We must invest to save, save to grow," said Meg Whitman, without even specifying the amounts listed online cash advance. "We must optimize our supply chain and reduce the number of our references," she added. "The electronics industry is interested in the effect of increasing production methods introduced in the automobile: a common platform from which several models are broken," says one industry expert. For example, a frame may be common to one or two PCs, a tablet and a hybrid product. One way to significantly reduce development costs and production. This mode of industrial production would respond perfectly to the deployment of Windows 8, scheduled for the end of the year. The new version of the operating system from Microsoft is designed to promote convergence between PCs, tablets and smartphones.

Moreover, the allusions to Meg Whitman to the need to develop a simpler system ("one HP"), more integrated, suggest that job cuts are not ruled out. "Our big customers want to deal with a single point of contact when speaking to HP," she said. A way as to emphasize the importance of a presence in both the hardware (PC) and services. Meg Whitman also took care to reaffirm its confidence in the future of the company, its ability to adapt to changing conditions.

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