January 7: Takeover of Tiffany by LVMH
The world number one in luxury had to spend nearly $ 15.8 billion.
Andriy Blokhin / stock.adobe.com
On January 7, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) sealed its record acquisition with the takeover of American jeweler Tiffany, a group made legendary in 1961 by the film
Breakfeast at Tiffany's (Diamonds on Sofa)
with Audrey Hepburn. The world number one in luxury had to spend nearly $ 15.8 billion. But the operation, announced in 2019, was almost abandoned ... for political reasons. In the summer of 2020, the Quai d'Orsay had asked by mail Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, not to go to the end of the union, in response to Donald Trump's desire to tax luxury bags and cosmetics to from January 6, itself the result of the “Gafa tax” initiated by France. But the acquisition did take place and theTrump administration ultimately abandoned the retaliatory measure.
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The 2021 Christmas bonus will be paid from December 15
Read alsoBernard Arnault: "The rebirth of the Samaritan woman is a symbol after fifteen months of crisis"
January 15: end of the Carrefour-Couche-Tard soap opera
"
My answer is a courteous no, but clear and definitive
", according to the Minister of the Economy.
cristianstorto / stock.adobe.com
“
My answer is a courteous no, but clear and definitive
”, declared the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire on BFMTV on January 15 in the face of the proposed acquisition of Carrefour by the Canadian distributor Couche-Tard, arguing “
food security of our pay
s
[since] Carrefour [y] represents almost 20% of food distribution
. "
At the time, the price advanced to buy Carrefour fluctuated between 20.5 and 21 euros per share while it struggled to exceed 17.5 euros on the stock market in 2021.
Read alsoCarrefour and Casino innovate in home delivery
January 16: Merger between PSA and FCA
In 2020, global car sales fell 17%.
piter2121 / stock.adobe.com
On January 16, the merger between the French PSA Peugeot-Citroën and the Italian Fiat Chrysler Automobiles materialized, giving birth to Stellantis. A few days earlier, the shareholders of the two groups had almost unanimously validated the operation at 43 billion dollars in a market devastated by the pandemic. In 2020, global car sales actually fell by 17%. Stellantis, led by Carlos Tavares, thus found itself sixth in the list of automotive groups, behind Toyota, Volkswagen, Renault-Nissan, General Motors and Hyundai-Kia. Directly competed with the American Tesla (the world's largest capitalization in the automotive industry), the juggernaut with 400,000 employees is putting the package on paid services to boost its margin.
To read also Carlos Tavares: "Let us be careful not to break the machine"
March 14: Eviction of Emmanuel Faber at the head of Danone
Emmanuel Faber, former CEO of Danone.
DENIS BALIBOUSE / REUTERS
To say that 2021 has been an eventful year at Danone is an understatement. The multinational has experienced a serious governance crisis originating from the cabal of two investment funds (Bluebell Capital Partners and Artisan Partners) against former CEO Emmanuel Faber. They blamed him for insufficient performance; the group's administrators, its solo and authoritarian management. At the beginning of March, Emmanuel Faber (successor to Franck Riboud in 2014) had agreed to split the functions of chairman and chief executive officer before being dismissed at the end of a board of directors on Sunday, March 14. After the interim which was notably provided by Gilles Schnepp (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Antoine de Saint-Affrique took the reins of Danone's general management on September 15. L'former CEO of Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut will have the difficult task of turning around the giant, whose 2021 results will be released in February 2022. In 2020, sales fell by 1.5% (like-for-like) over one year due to the crisis sanitary.
Read also Danone under pressure from rising costs
March 23, 2021: Ever Given paralyzes the Suez Canal
Aerial view of the Ever Given container ship stranded across the Suez Canal, March 29.
MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES / via REUTERS
A boat that has succeeded in derailing global freight. While crossing the Suez Canal, which sees around 17,000 ships circulating each year, the Ever Given, 400 meters long, is blocked, at an angle, in the middle of the canal. What paralyze the world maritime traffic, and push ships to take the way to the Cape of Good Hope, largely neglected until now since it represents a detour of 9000 kilometers and about ten additional days. Others waited at the entrance to the Suez Canal for the release of Ever Given, which would only take place six days later. An episode that recalled how the supply chain of many European companies operates just in time, depends on the import of Asian products.
Read alsoCanal de Suez: global imbroglio around the “Ever Given”
May 17: TF1 and M6 announce their decision to merge
Gilles Pélisson (left), CEO of the TF1 group, and Nicolas de Tavernost, chairman of the M6 group's management board.
Jean-Christophe MARMARA / Le Figaro
It was a thunderclap that echoed that day in the French audiovisual landscape. A merger of TF1, owned by the Bouygues group, and M6, owned by the RTL group, would give rise to a giant, overtaking France TV with more than 30% of audience share. And above all, an annual turnover of 3.4 billion euros and 70% of TV advertising revenue in France. Obtaining the approval of the competition authority will not be easy. The key point: TF1 and M6 will have to convince that it is necessary to consider not the advertising market of the only television but the broader one including also the digital advertising controlled by Google and Facebook. The Arcom (formerly the CSA) must for its part control that the future group will only have seven DTT channels, against ten currently.He will give his opinion on the entire operation by November 2022.
July 11: Agreement to tax 15% of multinationals
"
The countries intend to sign a multilateral convention in the course of 2022, with a view to its effective implementation in 2023
", according to the OECD.
IAN LANGSDON / AFP
On the international scene, 140 countries have approved the taxation of at least 15% of the profits of multinationals which achieve more than 750 million euros in turnover per year.
Result of long negotiations (in July in particular in Venice), the agreement will make it possible to fight against the tax optimization of the digital giants in particular.
"
The countries intend to sign a multilateral convention in the course of 2022, with a view to its effective implementation in 2023
", according to the OECD.
"
On the minimum tax, I believe that we will meet the deadlines
», Reacted this Thursday, December 30 on BFM Business the specialist in taxation issues within the organization Pascal Saint-Amans.
On the other hand, it is more measured concerning the second aspect: the distribution of the profits of the hundred most profitable multinationals.
Read alsoTaxation of multinationals: historic agreement to 136 countries with a rate set at 15%
August 9: IPCC and COP 26 report
COP26 President Alok Sharma is applauded after his closing speech at the climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, November 13, 2021. AUL ELLIS / AFP
Climate change has consequences "
irreversible for centuries and millennia
", concluded 234 scientists from 66 countries in the first part of the report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published in early August. Experts estimate that the temperature will rise by 1.5 degrees from 2030. This is ten years earlier than their previous calculations; in contrast to the Paris agreement dating from 2015 which aimed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. A finding all the more chilling with less than three of the COP 26 in Glasgow in Scotland ... The meeting of the 200 international delegations will have barely made it possible to reiterate the objective as the world powers depend on fossil fuels (coal, oil. ..). Starting with theIndia and China.
August 2021: France closes its delay in the deployment of 5G
5G, the fifth generation of mobile telephony.
Dado Ruvic / REUTERS
A little less than a year after the allocation of 5G frequencies, France had, in the summer of 2021, around 28,000 dedicated antennas. It took four years for 4G, launched in 2012, to reach this level. This dazzling departure is explained by the time available to operators to complete their preparations after the various obstacles to the launch of 5G: the first containment, the blocking by concerned elected officials, and the forced withdrawal from the market of Huawei. By allowing more objects to be connected on a more resilient network, this new technology finds a large number of applications for companies and services, such as health, where it must promote the development of remote monitoring of patients, for better manage home hospitalizations, disease prevention, etc.
September 2021: Facebook shaken by Frances Haugen's revelations
In September, Frances Haugen unveiled thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents to the press.
ELIZABETH FRANTZ / REUTERS
The leak begins with an article in the Wall Street Journal about the impact Instagram has on teenage girls.
But quickly, it is a flood of revelations and controversies.
In September, Frances Haugen unveiled in the press thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents, which demonstrate the company's shortcomings in, in particular, the management of hate speech and political manipulation.
The company led by Mark Zuckerberg has tried to turn the page by backpedaling some controversial projects, like Instagram for Kids, but also by announcing the company's turn to the Metaverse.
The group was renamed on this occasion: they now want to call themselves Meta.