Archive for December 2012
Texas Instruments closes its French operations – not saying OUI to France
In the wake of what will total 1700 cut jobs in its Telecom division Texas Instruments announced earlier this month that it will be cutting 517 of the 609 jobs, the majority of which at the Villeneuve-Loubet R&D center in the Alpes-Maritimes. While the 60-person sales team in Boulogne will remain intact, this represents a hard […]
2013 may see all new French tax ideas, like The Internet Tax
France’s unstable tax scheme may see yet another shift in the coming years, as LeFigaro reported earlier this month that an “Internet Tax” may see the light of day in the next few years. Specifically, the French government may begin taxing the storage of personal data about French internet users. The proposed law is expected to be brought to […]
Meetic purchases Belgian dating site Twoo.com to go international
It seems that Marc Simoncini’s dating site is looking at internationalization in 2013 – they purchased Massive Media, which owns Twoo.com, one of Belgium’s largest dating sites, for $25M. In their announcement, originally caught by TNW, Meetic CEO Philippe Chainieux said: This acquisition consolidates the MEETIC Group’s positions with a substantial increase in the number of […]
Why I think 2013 will be the year of "passive"
Each year we try to identify trends – Gartner often hits sector trends, but I tend to look cross-sector, at how people will view products in general. Remember when social was everything? If you had a product, you had to add social – connect to Facebook, share with friends, etc. Now that’s all a given, […]
Top 5 best performing Windows 8 Apps by French Startups according to Microsoft
At LeWeb Paris this year, I got to try out the Windows Surface as well as sit down with the Microsoft guys and talk shop. With all this “2012 is the biggest year for Windows ever!” talk going around, I thought I’d touch on a better subject: of those French startups who committed to building […]
eReputation and my shitty experience with RueDuCommerce
It’s that time of year again, where gifts are exchanged between people who love one another, or pretend to with varying degrees of acting talent. It’s also the time of year where customer services of big retailers are stretched (much) thinner than their desire to provide said service. Everyone’s experienced the long queues, hotlines asking […]
4 New Years Resolutions for Tech Journalists in France
I wanted to reach out to my ‘colleagues’ and discuss the state of tech journalism in France. I get it. Sarkozy terrified Journalists into remaining “unbiased”. This whole “startup” thing is still new, so we’re all sort of figuring out how to cover it. But look – I’ve been writing about and talking to European entrepreneurs […]
Google's Motorola Mobility may close its Toulouse facility
After going through what seems like endless rounds of restructuring, divestitures, and layoffs, the Motorola Toulouse facility looks like it will be hit with more. As reported by La Depeche du Midi and AFP, employees of Motorola Mobility, now a Google operation, were informed by management just before Christmas that the Toulouse facility may be closed by […]
French corporate taxes improve for 2013. Now only the 3rd worst in Europe
A recent report by Pricewaterhousecoopers comparing tax systems and rates across all countries for 2013 reveals which countries have the most attractive tax systems. Originally brought to our attention by LeFigaro, the report looked at each country in terms of how high taxes work (broken into labor, corporate, and social charges), the administrative impact of paying […]
Visiting Ubisoft, Pellerin announces €14M 'Mango' fund for Games R&D
If the government were ever to clearly define which sectors would be most strategic for them to invest in and develop for the future, the video game industry would undoubtedly be on the short-list. With a strong history in game development and distribution, a deep bench of highly-skilled technical and creative talent, a number 2 position […]