Tesla's VP of Worldwide Sales and Ownership Experience, George Blankenship, arguably knows more than anyone about how to design a disruptive brick and mortar store. Before he joined electric car company Tesla, he created the store experience for Apple (s AAPL), which has one of the most compelling in-store user experiences out there, and prior to that Blankenship pioneered store design at The Gap.
Monthly Archives: September 2012
Why a bad mapping app isn't enough to slow Apple down ... yet
Commentators are pouncing on Apple for releasing a mapping product that is inferior to Google Maps. New York Times columnist Joe Nocera went to the extent of questioning whether Apple had peaked. He wrote, “If Steve Jobs were still alive, would the new map application on the iPhone 5 be such an unmitigated disaster?”
No doubt, Apple’s mapping app isn’t perfect…
Billionaire Larry Ellison gets a 24 percent raise from Oracle (though he's probably worth it)
What does Oracle CEO Larry Ellison do when he's not buying entire islands? He gets paid lots and lots of money.
Oracle gave Ellison a compensation package of $96 million during its fiscal 2012. That's a 24 percent increase over the CEO's 2011 compensation package of roughly $78 million.
In all, Ellison's stake in Oracle is worth about $37 billion…
Wealthy Chinese Shun Louis Vuitton, Gucci as Too Popular
But as LVMH grew in China – there are currently about 38 Louis Vuitton stores there, including in remote areas such as the southern Guangxi autonomous region, compared to the 57 or so in Japan – it lost some of its cachet. “In China, Louis Vuitton is seen as the brand that even your ai-yi, or domestic helper, can afford,” said a retail consultant who declined to be named in order to be candid. When asked to comment, LVMH told Reuters via email it expected to “gain a brand new lead on the market” via a new store set to open next month in Shanghai’s swanky Plaza 66 mall. “The Plaza 66 will confirm Vuitton as the trendsetting brand in China,” the email said. Gucci did not immediately respond to requests for comment. LV remains one of China’s most popular labels – a recent survey by Digital Luxury Group put it at the top of web searches by consumers. But brands such as Chanel and Hermes are catching up fast. A recent study by consultants Bain shows twice as many Chinese now covet Hermes[RMS_FR Loading... () ], creators of the iconic Birkin and Kelly handbags, and the brand is the third most likely to be purchased after Gucci and Louis Vuitton. “Some prefer Hermes because our products are more subtle and not over exposed,” the brand’s China president, Leo Liu, told Reuters in an emailed statement. Some Like It Haute For Gao Jie, 27, a public relations employee who routinely buys luxury goods, Hermes is the ultimate status symbol: their bags are handmade, come in limited quantities, cost anything between $ 9,000 to $150,000 and are generally not within the reach of the general public. Gao says this year she aims to buy a brightly colored Kelly Candy handbag that costs at least four times her monthly salary of 20,000 yuan ($ 3,100). “There are some things that are classic by design and widely recognized by the market. I really hope to one day be able to own all these classic designs,” said Gao, who regularly sets aside some of her salary, and income from investing in stocks, to buy shoes and bags. To attract shoppers like Gao, LVMH and other larger luxury brands are trying to strike the difficult balance between exclusivity and popularity to remain profitable. LVMH is offering customers increasingly expensive and bespoke services to try to retain a mystique around the Louis Vuitton brand, whose creations are seen as being both too common and easily copied. The company is also careful about rolling out new stores, aware that the brand would suffer from too much visibility. Whether these strategies will convince savvy Chinese shoppers like Daisy Liu to carry their LV bags is unclear. “Luxury, embedded in that, is this notion of exclusivity: that not everybody has it. It’s always a fine line that the brands need to tread,” said Torsten Stocker, partner at business strategists
$260 Million Car Auction Breaks Pebble Beach Record
Call it the Concourse L’Argent. The annual series of car auctions known as the Pebble Beach Concourse d’Elegance, held as always on the famous golf course in Monterey, Calif., shattered its own total sales record this weekend. The five biggest auctions racked up a sales total of $260.3 million, up from last year’s $197.5 million, according to Hagerty, the collectible-car insurance company and price tracker. The sales jump came despite the fact that fewer cars were auctioned off this year. Last year, 882 lots were sold, for an average sale price of $ 223,950. This year, 754 lots sold for an average sales price of $345,272. That means the average sales price jumped more than 50 percent. The numbers could go even higher later today or tomorrow, since the early results don’t include post-auction sales of cars that didn’t go at the auction. Pebble Beach Collectible Car Sale The overall numbers weren’t the biggest surprise of the weekend. A 1936 Mercedes 540K Special Roadster (see my “test drive ” here) topped the price list as expected, but it didn’t break the $15 million mark that collectors anticipated. Meanwhile, a 1960 Ferrari nearly staged an upset, coming in a close second place at $11.2 million. Here are the top 10 sellers for the auctions run by Gooding, RM, Mecum, Bonhams, Russo and Steele. 1. 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster sold for $11,770,000 (Gooding) 2. 1960 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Competizione Spyder sold for $11,275,000 (Gooding) 3. 1968 Ford GT40 Gulf/Mirage Coupe sold for $11,000,000 (RM) 4. 1957 Ferrari 250 California GT SWB Spyder sold for $8,580,000 (RM) 5. 1955 Ferrari 410 S Berlinetta sold for $ 8,250,000 (RM) 6. 1956 Ferrari 250 GT TdF Coupe sold for $ 6,710,000 (RM) 7. 1957 Ferrari 250 GT California LWB Prototype Spyder sold for $6,600,000 (Gooding) 8. 1955 Ferrari 857 Sport sold for $6,270,000 (Gooding) 9. 1928 Bentley Le Mans 4 1/2 Liter sold for $ 6,050,000 (Gooding) 10. 1972 Porsche 917/10 Spyder sold for $ 5,830,000 (Mecum)
Christie’s First Online Auction Sells $820,000 in Wine
A luxury marketer once told me that wealthy consumers will never buy anything online – sight unseen – for more than $10,000. We may have to change that price to $50,000. Christie’s sold $819,715 worth of wine during an online-only auction. Among the big sellers was a case of 1982 Château Lafite-Rothschild, which sold to an Asian collector for $42,350. Christie’s and other auction houses have long used the Internet to sell some products and to market for live auctions. But during the two-week timed wine auction, all browsing and bidding was done completely online. Its success could mean that online-only auctions are the wave of the future. (Read more: The ‘Fairy Tales’ of Art, Wine and Jewels) Robert Frank CNBC Reporter & Editor Christie’s tested its online-only model with The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor late last year and a Spring charity auction of Hermes handbags. With the wine sale, the company says it will expand the program. Steven P. Murphy, CEO of Christie’s, said that more than 25 percent of the registered buyers for the sale were new to Christie’s. “E-commerce is a key part of our growth strategy as a company, and we look forward to expanding this exciting new model even further this fall, as we add more collecting categories to our online- only auction calendar.” The question is how far online-only auctions can go. Will people buy $120 million Munch paintings online? If online auctions go the way of the stock exchange, will the glamorous evening entertainments we’re used to, featuring staggering amounts of spending, become boring bytes on a screen? Neither is likely. Live auctions will no doubt continue to be the preferred mode of selling blue- chip art or major works priced above $1 million. It will also likely remain the primary way of selling super high-end wine, jewelery and other collectibles. (Read more: Diamonds Are the New Stocks ) But for some lesser priced items and objects that don’t need to be perused much in person, online bidding provides the wealthy a welcome convenience. It may not be long before people can sit at home in their bathrobes and click to buy a Picasso – or at least, a Picasso drawing.
Court Weighs World’s Richest Woman’s Family Feud
Lawyers for Asia’s richest woman and three of her children held preliminary arguments on Wednesday over who should control a $4 billion trust, a bitter family feud that has captivated Australia. Justice Paul Brereton of the New South Wales Supreme Court reserved a decision on whether the case against mining magnate Gina Rinehart should be thrown out of court or argued fully. A decision is not expected for some days. At stake is Rinehart’s position as the sole trustee of the trust that holds a near-one-quarter share in Hancock Prospecting, one of the world’s largest privately-owned mining companies. Lawyers for Rinehart and her daughter Ginia Rinehart, the only child to side with her mother in the feud, sought to have the suit brought by the three elder children to remove their mother as a trustee thrown out of court. Hancock Prospecting is developing what would be Australia’s fourth-largest iron ore mine and generates hundreds of millions of dollars a year in royalties from tenements secured by Gina Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, a legendary figure in Australian mining history. (Read more: ‘Drink Less, Work More,’ Rinehart Tells Non- Rich) The dispute has already caused a delay at Hancock’s flagship Roy Hill iron ore mine, rail and port project in Western Australia, which is now running into some stiff headwinds from slowing China demand and soaring costs. RELATED LINKS France’s Richest Man Told ‘Get Lost’ Wealthy Work to Avoid Health-Care Law’s ‘Mini-Cliff’ The Ultra-Rich Are Ready to Go Back to Stocks A halving in iron ore prices over the past year has dented both investor appetite for such projects and the 58-year-old widow’s fortune, estimated by Forbes in February at around $18 billion. FAMILY TIES Rinehart has been putting some of her vast wealth to work with purchases of media companies Fairfax Media and Ten Network Holdings in the past year, causing some consternation among the chattering classes. Her opposition to taxes and calls for miners to be allowed exemptions from laws restricting the use of foreign labour have also put her on a collision course with government and unions. Recently, Rinehart warned Australia was becoming too expensive for mining firms which she said could hire workers for under $2 a day in Africa. Rinehart, known as the Pilbara Princess, has a long history of controversy and has played out much of her life in the media spotlight. She is the only child of Hancock, a larger-than-life character credited with discovering the world’s largest deposit of iron ore in Pilbara, Western Australia. Rinehart learned the business at her father’s knee and, after a prolonged battle with his third wife following Hancock’s death in 1992, cemented control of Hancock Prospecting. Rinehart owns three-quarters of Hancock Prospecting and is the sole trustee of the family trust which holds a further 23 percent of the company for the benefit of her four children.Last year, just days before the trust was due to vest, Rinehart changed the vesting date to 2068 and sought changes in the trust documents, prompting her three eldest children — Hope Rinehart Welker, Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock — to fight to have her removed as trustee. E-mails earlier made public after Rinehart’s efforts to keep the case behind closed doors showed Rinehart told the children the vesting of the trust would likely trigger crippling capital gains tax liabilities for them. She also described the elder trio of children as being lazy and spoilt, and warned that their security would be at risk if they persisted with the action. MEDIATION ATTEMPT Lawyers for Rinehart, who was not in court, said she had since brought forward the vesting date for the trust and was prepared to hand over the assets, something the children did not want. “The only remaining duty for the trustee is to divide the assets and hand it out,” David Russell, counsel for the mining magnate said in court. “The beneficiaries will not want to receive the shares for tax reasons. The offer is made in open court.” Earlier, an attempt by the youngest daughter, Ginia, to bring about a mediation was rejected by the justice and lawyer for the warring children. “Ginia had a most genuine interest in moving the case to mediation without further public ventilation of this very unhappy family dispute,” Ginia’s lawyer, Francois Kunc, said. The early skirmishes in the family feud delayed the sale of equity stakes in Roy Hill, Rinehart has previously said. South Korean steel giant POSCO, Japanese trading company Marubeni, South Korea’s STX Corp, and Taiwan’s China Steel Corp hold a collective 30 percent stake in the project, with Hancock Prospecting holding the remainder. Hancock is currently trying to raise about $7 billion in debt funding to get the massive project into production. It is not clear what impact, if any, the removal of Rinehart as trustee of the family trust would have on Hancock Prospecting and its iron ore, coal and media empire. Shares in the company can only be held by Rinehart and her direct descendants and cannot be pledged as collateral.
Does Quantitative Easing Mainly Help the Rich?
Last month, the Bank of England issued a report that must have made Fed chairman Ben Bernanke squirm. It said that the Bank of England’s policies of quantitative easing – similar to the Fed’s – had benefited mainly the wealthy. Specifically, it said that its QE program had boosted the value of stocks and bonds by 26 percent, or about $970 billion. It said that about 40 percent of those gains went to the richest 5 percent of British households. Many said the BOE’s easing added to social anger and unrest. Dhaval Joshi, of BCA Research wrote that “QE cash ends up overwhelmingly in profits, thereby exacerbating already extreme income inequality and the consequent social tensions that arise from it.” The BOE countered that the benefits of easing may have trickled down, and that “without the Bank’s asset purchases, most people in the U.K. would have been worse off.” Still, the paper is instructive for the United States. The latest round of QE announced by Bernanke yesterday has sparked growing controversy about how Fed policy has mainly helped the wealthiest Americans. (Read more: The One Percent Gives Up Ground … to the Five Percent ) Economist Anthony Randazzo of the Reason Foundation wrote that QE “is fundamentally a regressive redistribution program that has been boosting wealth for those already engaged in the financial sector or those who already own homes, but passing little along to the rest of the economy. It is a primary driver of income inequality.” Donald Trump – not usually one for distributional analyses of monetary policy – said on CNBC yesterday that “People like me will benefit from this.” Robert Frank CNBC Reporter & Editor The reason is simple. QE drives up the prices of assets, especially financial assets. And most of the financial assets in America are owed by the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans. According to Fed data, the top 5 percent own 60 percent of the nation’s individually held financial assets. They own 82 percent of the individually held stocks and more than 90 percent of the individually held bonds. By helping to reinflate the stock market in 2009 and 2010, the Fed created a two-speed recovery . The wealthy quickly recovered much of their wealth as stocks doubled in value. But the rest of the country, which depends on houses and jobs for their wealth, remained stuck in recession. Put another way, most Americans have most of their wealth tied up in their houses (about 50 percent for most). For the top 5 percent, homes account for only 10 percent of wealth, while financial assets account for between one third and 40 percent. By boosting the value of financial assets, Fed has helped the economy of Richistan but not the broader United States. Bernanke is obviously aware of this criticism, which is why the latest round of easing is focused on mortgages. But here too, there is a divide between the rich and the rest. Despite lowered rates, banks remain strict on lending, restricting access to credit for most Americans. The wealthy and the asset-rich, however, will now enjoy even lower rates on their credit. In other words, while Mark Zuckerberg can get a 1.05 percent mortgage, most American’s can’t. Of course, low interest rates also penalize savers, and the wealthy as a group have the largest savings pool in America. If you ask the wealthy today what their biggest investment challenge is, it’s finding low-risk yield when CD’s and Treasurys pay next to nothing. (Read more: Ultra Rich Ready to Return to Stocks ) But that hardly undoes the advantages of easing. According to Spectrem Group, the wealthy have only about 13 percent of their investible assets in cash, and the rest (more than 85 percent) in stocks, bonds, alternative investments and mutual funds – all of which have benefited from easing. I’m not taking a position on whether the Fed should ease or not. The benefits for the broader economy may indeed outweigh the costs. And no one else in Washington seems to be doing much in the way of policy to help the unemployed these days. The question, though, is whether putting more profits into the hands of the top 5 percent will really generate jobs for the rest of America. So far, the evidence is not promising
Attacks on Bling in China Add to Luxury’s Woes
I’ve been warning of luxury slowdown throughout the summer. And the reason can be explained in a single word: China. For the past three years, China and Chinese tourists shopping abroad have filled the gap in the luxury market left by the Americans and Europeans. China is now the world’s second largest market for luxury goods, behind Japan. Despite the current slowdown in China’s economy, the country’s luxury market is expected to top $12 billion this year. But that support may be slipping. After Burberry’s earnings warning this morning, it’s stock fell 18 percent. Other lux stocks fell in sympathy, including LVMH, Hermes and Richemont. It’s unfair to lump these all of these companies together, especially as the luxury market bifurcates into strong high-end brands and weaker mass- luxury marketers. And some are run better than others. Hermes, for example, should not be punished for the retail strategies of Coach and Burberry. But all of these luxury companies share a common problem. They have all become dependent on China. And China is slowing. (Read more: Long Luxury Boom Slows in China) Robert Frank CNBC Reporter & Editor As David Faber said on our air this morning: “Chinese high rollers are just not rolling as high.” China’s next leader is missing, and so is China’s luxury consumer. The signs first appeared in the Spring, with some disappointing wine auctions. It then spread to bigger ticket items: jets, yachts and fine art. Overall, auction sales this spring fell 43 percent compared to the fall of 2011. Weak demand is also showing up in prices. The Chinese luxury CPI, which tracks prices for everything from there hes to G550 jets to Zegna suits and Patek Philippe watches, is now growing at about half the rate of 2011. The price of golf villa in Shanghai have fallen 7 percent this year, to $3 million. (Read more: China’s Art Bubble May Be Popping ) Some of this is due to a slowing economy in China and the end of stimulus. But it’s also due to a broader backlash against luxury and the wealthy in Chinese society and government. The Chinese word for “luxury” is discouraged on billboards. A blogger using the name Huazong has become a web sensation by the tracking the luxury watches worn by government officials making modest official salaries. He tracked watches for 2300 officials last year. A “discipline inspection commission” is investigating the assets of a government official who was shown online to be wearing – at various times — five different luxury watches, even though is official salary was less than $1,500 a month. When luxury can get you investigated, it may be time to rethink the Chinese luxury boom.
What $2 Million Buys You in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley’s dynamic, tech-based economy has inflated home prices in the area for more than two decades. But lately, thanks to a rash of IPO’s and the mobility of global wealth, relatively modest properties in the suburban towns south of San Francisco have been going for mansion-like prices. Sales of homes for $1 million or more doubled in the towns south of San Francisco in the past year, passing Beverly Hills and Miami, where the sumptuous palaces snapped up by the rich look more the part. The current boom is not the result of an avalanche of tech start-ups. Instead, the Valley has been flooded by employees of established companies like Facebook and Google, who enjoyed a personal “liquidity event” when their companies went public in the past few years. Another factor is the interest of buyers from China, who are looking for secure investments outside their increasingly volatile home market. Silicon Valley offers them an all-but-sure return, with the bonus of a place to send the kids to good American schools. As demand has shot up, the price per residential square-foot has skyrocketed. A 1,700-square-foot home in Los Altos, Calif., with dated fixtures and “lots of upside potential,” is priced at $1.3 million, according to one listing. In nearby Saratoga, $1.1 million gets you 1.2 acres of land – but no house. (Read more: Silicon Valley’s Boom Creates Shortage of $1 Million Homes ) In fact, inventory priced between $1 milliion and $ 2 million is so low at the moment, the real-estate agents we asked found it difficult to provide properties that were still active. Below, and on the following pages, find a representative selection: Source: Alain Pinel Reators Where: 18981 Palo Oaks Court, Saratoga Asking: $1,195,000 What You Get: Four bedrooms, granite slab kitchen, and cathedral ceilings inside; flagstone patio and pool out back. Source: Alain Pintel Realtors Where: 13646 Riverdale Court, Saratoga Asking: $1,599,950 What You Get: Five bedrooms, with family room featuring a Brazilian hardwood floor. French doors give onto backyard with pool and access to a hiking trail.Where: 1209 Cabrillo Lane, Burlingame, Calif. Asking: $1,725,000 (Sale pending) What you get: Four bedrooms, formal dining room and a kitchen with a center island in the desirable Easton neighborhood. Source: Alain Pinel Reators Where: 10517 San Felipe Road, Cupertino Asking: $1,895,000 What You Get: Four bedrooms including master suite, and a kitchen with granite counters and breakfast bar Source: Alain Pinel Reators Where: 1601 Shirley Avenue, Los Altos, Calif. Asking: $1,975,000 What You Get: Four bedrooms and family room overlooking a golf course, with white oak floors in living areas and tumble stone finishes.
Sate of berlins historical apartmenta
There are lots of apartments in Berlin. But the demand, at least among affluent prospective buyers, is for those built before World War II, with their high ceilings and almost floor-to-ceiling windows. And their supply is limited for the simple reason that so few survived the war. Research from Winters & Hirsch Property Consultants in Berlin found that 27.2 percent of the city’s apartment buildings were constructed before 1918. “The old character plays a role, naturally,” said Philipp C. Tabert, the company’s managing director. “It has a lot more charm than a new building.” But that charm comes at a price. Older apartments sell for an average of €155,000, or about $191,000, according to the company’s 2011 sales data. That is €1,810 per square meter, or about $207 per square foot. In comparison, apartments built from 1970 to 1990 average €1,490 per square meter; those built from 1949 to 1969 average €1,255 per square meter, according to Winters & Hirsch. RELATED LINKS London Real Estate Sizzles, but Provinces Often Pay More For Luxury Real-Estate, the ‘Year of Capitulation’ As Euros Flee to Germany, Germans Buy Up Beach Homes Experts say that in addition to the higher cost, a historic apartment is likely to be more expensive to maintain. Many fall under ensembleschutz, or ensemble protection laws, a program in which the city and residents of a neighborhood with historic character agree to try to retain that ambience. In those areas, for example, apartment owners would need permission to change their windows, to ensure that a building’s historic facade is maintained. Historical preservation laws known as denkmalschutz place even more rigorous restrictions on almost any change. But Ulf Sieberg, an expert on energy efficiency and building renovation with the German environmental organization NABU, said only about 3 percent of all buildings in Berlin were subject to those laws. Steffen Riedel of Eza! , an environmental and energy conservation consulting firm in southern Germany, said potential buyers of historic properties should press sellers for details of any preservation restrictions and check with the local authorities about specific requirements. “It can be frustrating and expensive” to maintain the charms that made an apartment desirable in the first place, Mr. Riedel said. He also said that many older buildings had poor air circulation, which over time could lead to problems with mold, and that they might lack insulation. Mr. Sieberg said potential buyers should be aware that German law calls for the country to become climate neutral — producing no pollution or greenhouse gases — by 2050, a goal that will require many buildings to become more energy efficient. Because the date is so far in the future, the enforcement of building codes and environmental standards now is perceived as lax, and many owners have not brought their units up to even current building codes. His organization is working with the government on the standards, with a focus on establishing the true cost of energy efficiency renovations — for example, determining who would pay for scaffolding that would be needed for a building overhaul. One idea to ensure compliance is to change rental laws so that owners are required to bring apartments up to code. He acknowledged that such action would produce higher rents, but if energy efficiency is seen as important, Mr. Sieberg said, “then you have to be prepared to pay the consequences.” MORE FROM NYTIMES.COM World Politics Business It is important to set such guidelines, he said, partly because some owners will never invest enough in rental properties where they do not live themselves. Also, many buyers are foreigners who plan to use their vintage apartments as income- producing vacation rentals and do not want to pay for retrofitting or do not know the laws. Darrell Smith, whose company Buy Berlin focuses on helping foreigners find properties in the city, said it had become more difficult to find high- quality historic apartments over the past year because demand had skyrocketed. “Basically, the demand is being driven by more people wanting vacants because they want to take advantage of touristy areas,” he said, noting a move away from the tradition of buying occupied apartments and continuing to collect rent from the existing tenants. Marc Dennis, of Manchester, England, who bought an apartment of 33.5 square meters, or about 360 square feet, in the Friedrichshain neighborhood through Buy Berlin, fits that profile. He plans to use his apartment, in a building dating from 1910, when he is in town and to rent it the rest of the time, primarily to tourists. Such rentals are legal, though the Berlin legislature is considering banning the practice. Mr. Dennis said he expected to start renting out the apartment fairly soon. He said that though the cost of buying an apartment in Berlin had been rising — he would not specify how much he paid, saying it was between €70,000 and €100,000 — the city continued to be affordable compared with other European capitals. As for keeping the apartment up to code, he said he would rely on the property managers referred by Buy Berlin to let him know about any changes that might be needed. The management services come at a cost, he said, but, “to be fair, the amounts I’m going to be paying are extraordinarily reasonable in terms of what will be covered,” including assistance in finding repair services and legal help with renters. The Friedrichshain neighborhood, Mr. Dennis said, is a “place where young professionals are looking to let in or rent in. It just seemed to tick all the boxes.”
France’s Richest Man Applies to Be a Belgian, Denies Tax Link
Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and chief executive of luxury group LVMH [MC-FR Loading... () ], said on Saturday he had applied for Belgian nationality, citing personal and business reasons. Announcing the move a day after French President Francois Hollande said he would press ahead with a new tax on the super rich, Arnault said he would continue to pay taxes in France and keep his French nationality. Hollande drew a mixed reaction in February when he announced plans for a 75 percent tax on revenue exceeding 1 million euros ($1.26 million) per year as part of efforts to cut France’s public deficit to 3 percent of economic output in 2013. Arnault, who emigrated to the United States during the last Socialist presidency in 1981, has been critical of Hollande’s tax initiative, telling Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Wednesday he opposed the move. But he was not becoming Belgian to cut his tax bill, he said. “Contrary to information published today, Bernard Arnault clarifies that he is and will continue to be a fiscal resident in France. His possible acquisition of Belgian nationality will not change this situation or his determination to develop LVMH and create jobs in France,” he said. RELATED LINKS Hollande’s Rich Tax More for Show Than Dough Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Renounces Citizenship The 10 Richest People in the Euro Zone Arnault is ranked as the world’s fourth richest man with a total wealth of $41 billion, according to Forbes magazine. In a year, he jumped from seventh position, benefiting from his company’s rising sales in Asia. Following newspaper reports on Friday that the government was preparing to water down the February tax pledge, Hollande and cabinet heavyweights said it would go ahead as promised. “The French are going to be called on to make an effort,” Hollande said. “There will be budget savings and solidarity will be necessary, especially from high earners who must contribute more.” British Prime Minister David Cameron triggered a war of words with France at the G20 summit in Mexico in June by vowing to “roll out the red carpet” for French firms if Hollande followed through on his plan to tax the wealthy more.
The Royal Nokia Screw-Up That Shouldn't Have Been
Anyone who cares about fostering a dynamic, competitive tech industry should be rooting for Nokia. Even if you’re not as gaga for Windows Phone as I am—I think it’s the best-designed mobile OS on the market—you’ve got to concede that the Finnish phonemaker has the capacity to be a genuine force for innovation in phone and tablet hardware.
Mitt Romney's hacker drama or Amazon Kindle: Which was a bigger deal this week?
Hey-o, kiddies. Here's the news of the week in the tl;dr format you've come to love and depend on:
- Biggest story, traffic-wise: A hacker is holding Mitt Romney's tax returns hostage for (wait for it) $1 million in Bitcoins. Nice work there, Dr. Evil.
- The new Kindle family members have arrived. One's a lot like an iPad, and the other's a lot like a book.
Chinese company pre-patents iPhone 5 clone
Wonderfully-named mobile phone manufacturer "GooPhone" has patented a very iPhone-like design in China, according to local gadget site GizChina.
The GooPhone i5 is a pre-emptive iPhone 5 knockoff apparently based on leaked product prototypes. It runs Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and according to GizChina, sports a 1.4 Ghz Tegra processor, one gigabyte of RAM, and a 4-inch "retina" display with a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels.
No app store? No problem. Grooveshark rolls out full HTML5 site for all devices
Shortly after getting its Android app kicked out of the Google Play store, Grooveshark is rolling out the full version of its HTML5 web app today.
For those not familiar with it, Grooveshark is a streaming music service that relies on its users to upload songs to the cloud. People can then share or add those songs to genre-specific channels, much in the same way you can with YouTube videos.
Pinterest fights Chinese cyber-squatter
A Chinese man has been snapping up dozens of domain names related to popular American start-ups and is seeking to trademark some of the names in the US and China.
Qian Jin of Nanjing, China, has applied to register marks like Foursquare, Twitter, Quora and Instagram and has also bought dozens of websites like Pinterests.com and Pinterest.de
Qian's activities are described in a lawsuit filed by Pinterest last week in San Francisco.
i taught chinese where trying to move away from being the copycat and making something original.They should stop stealing from american companies.
Happy birthday Skype. In 9 years you changed telecom
It is hard to imagine that Skype (S MSFT), a service that is so deeply embedded into our broadband life, is nine years old. August 29, 2003 is the official birthday of the service, which celebrated its ninth birthday just ahead of the long holiday weekend here in the United States. It is a service that started as a simple idea - free calling for everyone who had an Internet connection.
Happy birthday Skype. In 9 years you changed telecom
It is hard to imagine that Skype (S MSFT), a service that is so deeply embedded into our broadband life, is nine years old. August 29, 2003 is the official birthday of the service, which celebrated its ninth birthday just ahead of the long holiday weekend here in the United States. It is a service that started as a simple idea - free calling for everyone who had an Internet connection.
22 secrets of success from Europe's most controversial entrepreneur
Oliver Samwer is the German Internet mogul and multi-millionaire owner of startup incubator Rocket Internet, best known for his agressive cloning tactics and bullish management strategies.
His most famous copies are of successful US sites released into the European or emerging markets and then sold back to the originators. These include alado.de, an auction site that was sold to eBay for $43 million, and CityDeal, a Groupon clone later acquired by the couponing giant for $126 million.
Brain drain: Hackers could dip their phishing poles into your mind
For secrets, nowhere's safer than the inside of your head, right? Wrong. Commercially sold electrode-headsets, often used in gaming, can be hacked to extract your ATM PIN, birthday month, location, and more, according to Wired.
It's a whole new era of phishing attacks. Instead of tricking you into giving up sensitive information with convincing e-mails, hackers could tap into your gaming headsets and pull the information out of your brainwaves that are converted into data streams.
President Obama's Ask Me Anything on Reddit needed 60 dedicated servers (!)
Apparently, POTUS is popular. 60 extra servers popular.
President Obama's Ask Me Anything two days ago was a massive success, as Reddit highlighted earlier today in a blog post. Not only did the page get 2.99 million views on the day of the event, it has received another 2.3 million page views already as of this morning.
Perhaps the most surprising stat was the number of servers Reddit added to handle the onslaught of traffic.
Pirate Bay founder arrested in Cambodia after evading cops for eight months
Gottfrid Svartholm, The Pirate Bay founder better known online as Anakata, has been arrested in a riverfront apartment in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.
He has been wanted internationally ever since January, when he failed to appear in Sweden to serve a 12-month prison sentence.
So far, neither Cambodian nor Swedish authorities have issued public statements about the charges Svartholm now faces; we'll update this post as more information becomes available.
