FT :VW chief urges carmakers to fight the rise of the ‘data monster’

Carmakers must prevent the connected vehicle of the future turning into a “data monster” that aids snooping on customers, the chief executive of Volkswagen has warned.
Speaking at the opening of the CeBIT IT fair in Hanover, Martin Winterkorn, Europe’s most influential auto executive, vowed to protect customers against the abuse of their data.

“I clearly say yes to Big Data, yes to greater security and convenience, but no to paternalism and Big Brother. At this point, the entire industry is called upon. We need a voluntary commitment by the automobile industry,” he said.
Cars are set to generate increasingly vast amounts of data as they are kitted out with infotainment and connectivity services as well as self-driving functions.
Testing an autonomous S-Class saloon on German roads last year Mercedes-Benz said images from the onboard stereo camera alone generated 300 gigabytes of data every hour.
Modern vehicles have become mobile computers, with 1.5km of cables, more than 50 control units and the computing power of 20 advanced personal computers, Mr Winterkorn noted. “The car must not become a data monster,” he said.
In the same way that social networks gather data in order to offer targeted advertising, data will offer the car industry the chance to offer new services.
Some of these services will clearly be beneficial for the consumer: sensors in the car can automatically alert the driver when the vehicle requires a service and let the repair shop know exactly what needs fixing.
But some impacts may be more intrusive: insurance companies are expected to push customers to install telematic systems that could identify aggressive driving patterns and penalise these with higher premiums.
The car industry also faces a challenge in how to store all that data securely, whether in the vehicle or in the cloud. It must also decide which data can be discarded and which must be preserved, in the event of an accident.
In the audience on Sunday were German chancellor Angela Merkel and British prime minister David Cameron – whose governments were rocked in different ways last year by allegations of government snooping on internet communications. Privacy is expected to be a big theme at the CeBIT show.

(BFW) Maroc Telecom Unit Awarded 2 Licences by Gabon Govt, CEO Says

 BN 03/10 09:32 *MAROC TELECOM CEO ABDESLAM AHIZOUNE COMMENTS BY PHONE
 BN 03/10 09:32 *MAROC TELECOM UNIT AWARDED 2 LICENCES BY GABON GOVT, CEO SAYS
Maroc Telecom Unit Awarded 2 Licences by Gabon Govt, CEO Says
2014-03-10 09:34:56.530 GMT


By Souhail Karam
     March 10 (Bloomberg) -- 3g, 4g licenses awarded, CEO
Abdeslam Ahizoune says by phone.

Link to Company News:{IAM MC <Equity> CN <GO>}

For Related News and Information:
First Word scrolling panel: {FIRST<GO>}
First Word newswire: {NH BFW<GO>}

To contact the reporter on this story:
Souhail Karam at +44-20-7330-7500 or
skaram5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andres R. Martinez at +233-302-258-794 or
amartinez28@bloomberg.net

(BFW) Rolls Rises; Tognum Accretive, Waertsilae Bid Unlikely: Investec

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Rolls Rises; Tognum Accretive, Waertsilae Bid Unlikely: Investec 2014-03-10 09:24:38.379 GMT

By Brian Lysaght March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Rolls-Royce rises as much as 3.7%, on vol. 47% of 3-mo daily avg. Daimler said March 7 aftermkt it plans to sell Tognum JV stake valued at GBP1.9b to Rolls-Royce. * Investec (buy on Rolls) says stake will be est. 7% accretive to Rolls-Royce 2015 EPS * Notes Rolls has ample liquidity to buy stake; deal makes Rolls equity raising to fund purchase of another industrial such as Waertsilae “more unlikely:” Investec * Waertsilae falls as much as 5.4%, currently down 1.6%; mkt cap EU7.95b * Rolls-Royce said Jan. 9 Waertsilae takeover talks ended

For Related News and Information: First Word scrolling panel: FIRST<GO> First Word newswire: NH BFW<GO>

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Lysaght in London at +44-20-7330-7908 or blysaght@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at +44-20-7673-2645 or jludden@bloomberg.net Gaurav Panchal

LePoint.fr : Affiare Sarkozy : le juge Azibert a tenté de se suicider

le juge Azibert a tenté de se suicider
Le Point.fr - Publié le 10/03/2014 à 10:07 - Modifié le 10/03/2014 à 10:23
Mis en cause dans l'affaire des écoutes téléphoniques de Nicolas Sarkozy, Gilbert Azibert a tenté de mettre fin à ses jours à Bordeaux.

Dimanche soir, Gilbert Azibert, le magistrat "mis en cause" par les écoutes des conversations entre Nicolas Sarkozy et son avocat Thierry Herzog, a tenté de mettre fin à ses jours. Il a prévenu sa femme qu'il ne saurait supporter les accusations qui pesaient contre lui. Les pompiers de Bordeaux, où il réside, ont été appelés en urgence et l'avocat général auprès de la Cour de cassation a été transporté dans un hôpital de la ville.

Aucun détail n'a encore filtré sur son état de santé.

Renvoi d'ascenseur ?

Gilbert Azibert était en fin de carrière et devait faire valoir ses droits à la retraite en février 2015. Sa carrière a été exemplaire. Il est officier de la Légion d'honneur et des Palmes académiques et commandeur dans l'ordre du Mérite. Mais le coup de tonnerre des révélations du Monde vendredi, a changé la donne. Car dans les enregistrements des conversations entre Thierry Herzog et Nicolas Sarkozy, les deux hommes évoquent Azibert comme celui qui leur permet de savoir ce qui se passe dans la haute juridiction. Celle-ci doit en effet statuer sur la saisie des agendas de Nicolas Sarkozy.

Pire, Me Herzog évoque selon Le Monde la possibilité d'un "renvoi d'ascenseur", Gilbert Azibert souhaitant obtenir un poste à Monaco.

La Principauté a immédiatement démenti avoir subi la moindre pression. Selon un communiqué, "Gilbert Azibert a été candidat à un poste de magistrat à la Cour de révision, équivalent à Monaco de la Cour de cassation". Mais à l'issue du processus de recrutement, "sa candidature n'a pas été retenue". '"Aucune intervention extérieure n'est venue interférer dans cette procédure de recrutement", soulignait le communiqué.

(NYPost) Advertising profits begin to turn around --> +ve Publicis

--> +ve for the all sector, still like Publicis
For the past decade, media companies have been stung by a combination of an economic slowdown and a problem demonstrating growth in advertising revenue. But a change is in the air.
In fact, Janney Capital industry analyst Tony Wible is telling investors that the long-problematic media advertising picture is definitely looking up.
“Advertisers and media agencies are optimistic we will see higher ad budgets, reaching their highest point since the fall of 2006,” Wible points out, citing data from the Perception Group’s Advertising Optimism Index.
Television reigns supreme in discussions about ad spending, thanks to an improving economic picture and big events in sports and entertainment.
“This is a really strong advertising marketplace for television,” Brad Adgate, research director for Horizon Media, says. “We just had the most expensive Super Bowl ever, with $4 million for a 30-second spot. NBC reportedly sold a billion dollars in ads during the Olympics, and the Oscars had ads going for $1.8 million for 30 seconds.”
“Interestingly, marketers themselves are more optimistic than their agency counterparts on traditional [print] media and broadcast TV … which could imply that the demand for these media may be stronger than expected.”

(NYPost) Banking isn’t a wonderful life now as suicides sweep financial district

Banking isn’t a wonderful life now as suicides sweep financial district

In the last two months, there has been a rash of suicides and mysterious deaths sweeping the world of high finance.
JPMorgan has been hardest hit, with three untimely deaths in just the last few weeks, and last week Autumn Radtke (left), a 28-year-old CEO of First Meta, a small cyber-currency exchange, jumped to her death in Singapore.
Historically, suicide rates rise during times of financial stress and economic downturns. Now, though stocks are at or near all-time highs, for many Wall Street bankers these are times of setbacks and stress.
Today’s bankers are not a settled, comfortable bunch anymore. A day doesn’t go by where you don’t hear about more bank layoffs and branch closings.
Under Jamie Dimon’s leadership, JPMorgan has announced 17,000 job cuts through the end of this year, and that’s on top of all the cuts from the 2008-09 crisis.
If you’re a banker today, many who once looked up to you as a success now think you’re evil; maybe you’re even the type who caused the economy to crumble.
On top of that, you hear politicians from the president on down blaming “Wall Street and bankers” for the crisis, as if they were all the same, when in reality it was only five or six individuals very high up at places like Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. who share responsibility.
Financially, many of today’s bankers, if not on unemployment, are making far less — as much as half or one-third less — than they did just four or five years ago. And that’s not easy for anyone, especially when you have a mortgage of your own, a family and a car or two.
For example, overall average compensation at JPMorgan was $122,653 in 2013. That amount is nothing to sneeze at, but it is still a lot less than the bankers were making before — often for a 60-to 80-hour work week.
When we lose a person like Autumn Radtke — who worked for Apple and directly for Richard Branson and became CEO of her own startup — from a 25-story apartment building because she can’t see the worth of living, the world loses.
And today many Wall Street bankers are in the midst of their own emotional and economic crises.

(NYT) : Carl C. Icahn is liking Facebook a bit more these days.

Carl C. Icahn is liking Facebook a bit more these days.

The billionaire investor disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday that he plans to start using the social network as another platform for his activism campaigns.

The septuagenarian, who has made shaking up technology companies his latest focus, set up his page on Valentine’s Day. Describing himself, he wrote: “Some people get rich studying artificial intelligence. Me, I make money studying natural stupidity.”

Facebook will supplement his already popular Twitter feed, where 154,858 followers have been tracking his almost daily barbs against eBay‘s board, and his Shareholders Square Table website.

Mr. Icahn’s disclosure was made to ensure that he complied with guidelines from the Securities and Exchange Commission about using social media. The agency clarified last year that companies may use their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and corporate blogs to publish news. They just need to let investors know which channels that information will appear on first.

Plenty of people have already gotten the word about Mr. Icahn’s new Facebook presence. As of Friday afternoon, 3,542 people had liked his page.

(Challenges) Bouygues Telecom and Free seal a historic agreement

Bouygues Telecom and Free seal a historic agreement
Translation {http://bit.ly/1kH04kt}

Iliad confirmed on Sunday it had signed an agreement of exclusive negotiations with Bouygues and should cede its network of 15,000 branches. The amount of the transaction is estimated at € 1.8 billion.

"We have entered into exclusive negotiations to yield to Free for an amount up to 1.8 billion euros go our entire mobile network," announced Olivier Roussat, CEO of Bouygues Telecom in an interview with Journal du Dimanche .

This agreement, which covers "15,000 antennas and a portfolio of frequencies, some of which for 4G" is conditioned to the fact that SFR Bouygues acquires sold by Vivendi.

Vivendi, parent company of SFR, which seeks to separate its telecom subsidiary to focus on the media said Wednesday it has received offers from Bouygues and Numericable taking majority control.

The offer was unveiled by Bouygues favors including the Stock Exchange, but seemed to be a problem with the rules of competition.

No capital increase to fund such redemption

Free account fund the redemption frequency and network Bouygues "with own resources and banking group, without recourse to a capital increase," the Iliad in a statement.

This assignment is an "extension of the proposed merger of Bouygues Telecom and SFR" made Vivendi, parent company of Free, and "aims to keep France a strong infrastructure competition," said Bouygues in a statement.

"I welcome the agreement to submit to the Competition Authority a proposed merger between SFR and Bouygues Telecom now include measures ensuring a strong infrastructure competition on the French market for mobile telephony," he commented Meanwhile Martin Bouygues, CEO of Bouygues in this commmuniqué.

"Maintaining a dynamic market for consumers"

The agreement with Free "enables Bouygues Telecom to present ab initio the Competition Authority measures to maintain a dynamic market to benefit consumers," said Bouygues.

In fact, the President of the Competition Authority, Bruno Lasserre, told the newspaper Les Echos that the sale of network Bouygues Telecom Free could "facilitate" the file review.

"Without mitigate the fierce competition on the French market, the agreement, as the merger Bouygues Telecom SFR, would return to the area of mobile telephony a balance to boost employment, achieve the desired investment by government and develop the quality of service and innovation for the benefit of consumers, "still considers the Bouygues group.

Free and become an operator "full and complete"

This agreement enables Bouygues "raise the main uncertainty from (its) project under the Competition Authority. And Free to become a full and complete operator," says Olivier Roussat in this interview to JDD.

It remains for the moment "conditioned the success of our proposed merger with SFR filed Wednesday, March 5 from its parent company, Vivendi," he says.

"We provide an immediate response to the imperatives of competition. In case of merger with SFR, we would have a network too. Again, there is a buyer who will recreate a competitive dynamic. This turnkey solution should facilitate the marriage SFR and Vivendi reassuring, "he says again.

Bouygues Telecom network will not be "destroyed"

The Competition Authority will review the file and if all goes well, migration and network subscribers could take place "in 2015," plan to ensure that the agreement "also ensures employment of the entire telecom sector in France with maintaining three networks. "

"Free wishes to maintain the network with its own agents, warns CEO of Bouygues Telecom. And we want to keep our 1,200 employees are affected. Our network will not be destroyed. Instead, Free will live 15,000 antennas that will become the his own. "

Olivier Roussat also confirmed that his "proposed merger with SFR not cause any departure." Instead, the merger will invest in the Internet and mobile networks and "create jobs. This is the sinews of war."

The merger agreement and fully rebattrait cards in the field of French mobile telephony share four players.

Bouygues boasts of having "the best 4G network"

Orange leader today has 27 million mobile customers, SFR has 21 million, 11 million Bouygues Telecom and Free 7400000.

However a Free relay network underdeveloped and relies on a 3G roaming agreement with Orange , but not for 4G. However Bouygues boasts of having the best 4G network via authorization which allowed him to use this technology on a frequency band that already operated giving him an edge in terms of coverage.

This agreement should enable Bouygues and Free "to reduce costs," according to Olivier Roussat which ensures that the price war being waged by the mobile operators, at the initiative of Free, and more recently in the internet the initiative this time Bouygues should continue.