Xavier Niel scoops up Orange Suisse for €2.3 billion
Having successfully entered and disrupted France’s telco market, first in triple play and then in mobile, he’s recently been setting his sights on new markets. Although the T-mobile US acquisition didn’t go his way, he did have have a successful first move abroad by taking a 55% stake in Monoco Telecom. Now he’s wrapping up […]
With 10 million subscribers, 4G starts to win over France
After a healthy start 18 months ago, 4G has begun to seduce the French public, with 10 million users now signed-up. The uptake of 4G was historically fast, with users taking to 4G 10 times faster than they did with 3G. Although Europe clearly trailed the US the roll-out of 4G, clearly things are […]
Musings on VC internships in France
Last Friday at the office we held the pôt de départ (farewell party) of one of our interns. Although this young man was not working directly with me, I know that my colleague greatly appreciated this intern’s contribution for six months. This was my colleague’s first experience of recruiting a VC intern in France, and […]
Is investing in gaming like betting on Hollywood?
On a recent trip to Tokyo, I met with a handful of business partners and investors in the mobile gaming sector, one of my investment themes over the past few years centering on European endeavors in this space. A familiar debate comes up every time: Is mobile gaming as a sector still investable? Has mobile […]
Here’s hoping the ISR trend does not become Corporate Greenwashing 2.0
Socially responsible investment practices, or ISR in French (investissement socialement responsable), has been catching on among fund management companies in France lately. The notion of SRI in modern portfolio management began gaining momentum in the late 1990s, mainly in the US and UK. The first sell-side brokerage in the world to offer SRI research was […]
PhotoBox completes its second acquisition in a month by scooping up its rival Hoffmann
With 30 million members, PhotoBox is now Europe’s leading online digital photo service. Up until now, PhotoBox has had a physical presence in Europe in just Paris, London, and Sweden, as well as in Australia. With the recently announced acquisition of Valencia-based Hoffmann, a company founded in 2009 with its strength in the digital creation […]
La Belle Assiette raises $1.7m seed round to further accelerate their rapid growth
La Belle Assiette launched just last year and has already secured its position as the #1 marketplace for private chefs in Europe. The past 6 months were particularly robust ones in terms of their growth as they expanded throughout France and launched in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the UK and have validated over 350 Chefs on their […]
Orange puts plan to acquire Spanish telco Jazztel into motion
Orange is continuing to roll-out its strategy to expand its reach in the European telco market. After revealing in September its plans to acquire Jazztel in September with a 3.4 billion offer, Orange formalized its intent with an official request to the Spanish authority for financial markets (CNMV – Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores) that the […]
Career guidance solution Talentoday announces $1.4 million seed round
On the back of their very successful launch earlier this year, psychometric and social career guidance solution Talentoday has just announced raising a $1.4 million seed round with multiple investors including Nicolas Draca, Head of Global Marketing Operations at LinkedIn; Herve Goguely, former Chairman and CEO of Netcentrex; as well as angels from HP, Visa, and Oracle. Cofounded by Pierre-François Verley and Martin […]
The pyramid of luxury consumption
On the heels of Paris Fashion Week and the abundance of glitteratti strolling around in the balmy summer weather wearing ostentatious dresses (I saw one model that seemed to wearing a ball gown made of rubber tubes and hanging orbs), it seems appropriate to reflect on the stages of wearable luxury. Here’s how I see […]