The agreement, which is subject to approval of regulatory authorities telecom and competition, will take effect in mid-2012, the conglomerate said in a statement ;.

Orange Austria's capital is currently divided between France Telecom and the investment fund Mid Europa Partners.

The French operator, which has launched a review of its assets, has already beaten its subsidiary Orange Switzerland, sold at the end of December to fund Apax Partners for 1.6 billion euros. 

January 23, Stéphane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, told the BFM Business microphone that selling the group's business in Austria was "a matter of days ".

Hutchison 3G, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is already present on the Austrian market through the brand "3".

In a report entitled "European Economic Perspective: The Return of the recession," the rating agency forecasts growth of 0.4% for the euro area next year, following 1.5% expected this year.It has revised its forecast to 0.5% growth for France in 2012 (against 0.8% previously), 0.6% for Germany (against 1%) and 0.1% for Italy (against 0.2%).

In 2013, growth would accelerate to 1.2% for the euro area to 1.3% for France, 1.5% for Germany, 0.5% for Italy and 1.0% for Spain (after + 0.3% expected in 2012).

"We now expect a mild recession in the first half of 2012 in the euro area, before a modest rebound in the second half of the year," wrote the chief economist at S & P for Europe, Jean-Michel Six.

"The impending recession threatening Europe was first found fertile ground in Spain, Portugal and Greece, but economic problems are spreading now in the heart of the euro area, France and Spain," says it.

These sales were up 16.4% over the same period a year earlier to 52.4 billion (39.25 billion euros), according to data released Sunday by the National Federation of the distribution ( NRF).

A total of 226 million people traveled between Thursday and Sunday in stores or on online sales sites.This is also an unprecedented level, compared with 212 million last year.

Among the big winners of the weekend appears Best Buy, one of the stores that opened its doors at midnight on the night of Thanksgiving.

Most European stock markets ended the week in the red, worried Berlin's refusal to use the European Central Bank (ECB) to reduce fears about fragile states. Paris has lost 0.4%, from under 3000 points, Frankfurt (-0.8%) and London (-1.11%) also won. Madrid and Milan have instead ended in the green (0.5% and 0.2% respectively). In the line of sight of the markets, the refusal to Berlin to call for the ECB to contain the crisis.Political pressures are becoming more numerous and demanding that the central bank relaxed its position to let him play the role of lender of last resort against Europe's most indebted. And put an end to soaring interest rates on debt. The spread between Germany and Spain has exceeded 500 basis points Friday. "As the savior of Italy but also in other countries precarious, there is that the ECB," said analyst Robert Halver Germany, Baader Bank, adding that "it is the only one who can fight against nuclear explosion in the euro area. "

Germany and the ECB opposed to an intervention

Germany, the only country ruled by the strong market is the focus of all eyes. Chancellor Angela Merkel refuses steadfastly calls to relax the policy of the ECB.

As BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, SocGen launched in September a plan for savings and reducing the size of its balance sheet to enhance its financial strength and reduce its financing needs in dollars, after seeing its market capitalization s' collapse during the summer.

The operation, if it goes to completion, will allow the first record company to add to its global purse of music stars such as Coldplay and Katy Perry, but it may be a long review and detailed by the competition authorities.

"It is a historic acquisition for UMG (Universal Music Group) and an important step in preserving the heritage of EMI Music," said Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal, in a statement.

The U.S. bank, the Financial Times on Friday, would end the deadlock by agreeing to make such commitments at his expense.

Also interested in the recorded music division of EMI, the billionaire Len Blavatnik, owner of Warner Music Group, was considered the favorite, but according to two people familiar with the discussions, he threw in the towel last week after the rejection by Citigroup's offer of a $ 1.5 billion.

Despite the Europe Agreement in an attempt to stem the crisis, the cost of financing the huge debt of Italy rose again Friday at a bond test, the markets continue to doubt the credibility of the Berlusconi government.

The collection amounted to 9.7 billion euros in September while the amount of benefits paid totaled 11.5 billion euros.

Net inflows, the difference between contributions and benefits remains positive throughout the year.

In the first nine months of 2011, benefits payments to customers were up 19% to 78.8 billion euros, while the premiums collected by insurance companies has decreased from 11% to 98 billion euros .

The life insurance industry is suffering from financial market volatility, higher the performance of the booklet A and competition from other savings accounts that banks promote to increase the deposits of their customers.

S & P puts forward such weak growth and high debt of the private sector.

In response, the euro has a downward trend in Asian markets opened Friday, but always seems on track to achieve its best performance since the week of January.

"Despite signs of strength in economic performance during the year 2011, we observed an increased risk to the outlook for growth in Spain," said S & P, citing high unemployment, difficult budgetary conditions, the high indebtedness of the private sector and the likely economic slowdown in major trading partners of Spain.

The agency said in a statement to expect that the quality of financial sector assets continue to depreciate.

Standard & Poor's also believes that the reform of the labor market is "incomplete" and therefore constitutes an obstacle to the resumption of economic activity.

"We could lower the rating again if, according to our scenario of decline, the economy is contracting in 2012, if the fiscal situation of Spain deviates significantly from the objectives set by the government or if reforms Additional labor market and other reforms to support growth are delayed, "warns the rating agency.

The French are quite happy in their lives, and they are all the more as their incomes rise, according to a study released Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE). "In France in 2010, when we ask people to indicate their level of satisfaction in life, they meet an average of 7.3 on a scale of 0 to 10", is the INSEE.

This study was conducted following the report presented in 2009 by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz.This report commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested to complete the measurement of economic growth, currently estimated by the gross domestic product (GDP), indicators of "well being" taking into account the non-market activities (housework, leisure …) or inequality.

The money buys happiness

According to INSEE, 92% of respondents said a satisfaction greater than or equal to 5, and 60% even give themselves a score between 7 and 9. "The satisfaction increases systematically with the standard of living," said he: it rose from an average of 6 to 10% of the most modest at 7.8 for the 10% most affluent.Similarly, the French have more difficulties, to make ends meet month to pay their bills or have adequate housing, more dissatisfaction is high.

However, most high-income, "plus gain satisfaction is low and other dimensions that the income involved," said INSEE. "The money buys happiness, but only to a certain extent," he told AFP Fabrice Lenglart, Director of Demographic and Social Statistics at INSEE. "This is the first time that we assess subjective indicators. The main interest is to be correlated with objective data that we used to collect," he added.

After the material living conditions, health problems have a strong impact on the well-being felt.Other factors include age (45-49 years are the least satisfied) and the situation vis-à-vis employment (the unemployed are significantly more dissatisfied than assets). Residents of rural communities say they are on their side slightly more satisfied than city dwellers.

The study was conducted in May and June 2010 with a panel of 10,000 households representative of the so-called ordinary French metropolitan population over 16 years, interviewed face to face.