Europe

New figures from Gartner reveal that PC shipments in Western Europe increased by 19.6% in the second quarter as compared with the same period a year ago. Gartner reports that 15.6 million units were sold for the quarter, with the consumer market outshining the professional segment.

The consumer market was led by sales of notebooks and all-in-one PCs. Mini-notebooks or netbook sales grew less than 10 percent for the first time but still comprised 19 percent of mobile PC sales in Europe.

Barclaycard has selected SoundBite Communications, a leading provider of on-demand, multi-channel proactive customer communications to deliver proactive customer communications across Europe.

The company also established a wholly-owned subsidiary, SoundBite Communications UK, Limited, to meet the growing demand for its proactive customer communications solutions in Europe. This move enables SoundBite to establish dedicated staff based in the UK to accelerate its European growth strategy.

Google announced it would allow advertisers in Europe to use rival’s trademarks when they bid for online ads in a move to prevent big brand owners from controlling which ads appear during users' searches.

The change takes effect September 14, 2010 and applies to most European nations. However, the practice itself is not new as it has been applied to brands in the United States, Britain and nearly 200 other countries. The change in Europe was adopted after a European Court of Justice ruled that Google did not infringe trademark law by selling keywords to trigger ads.

European online payments provider paysafecard announced the appointment of Richard Knight as a new Director of the company’s UK-based subsidiary Prepaid Services Company Ltd.

Previously Richard Knight performed some risk management and compliance roles for Travelex, a global financial services company. In his latest position as Head of Compliance for the prepaid card and mobile payments division, he was responsible for all regulatory and compliance matters relating to Travelex’s prepaid card business which operates in over 30 countries worldwide.

As Visa unveiled today, it’s teaming with Turkey's Akbank and vendor DeviceFidelity in a move to launch Europe's first microSD-based contactless m-payment system.

Thus far, Akbank customers will be enabled to insert DeviceFidelity's In2Pay microSD into their handsets' memory card slots, turning them into contactless payments devices that can be used with Visa payWave terminals.

As showed the latest survey from Goldman Sachs 10 out of the 91 banks subjected to Europe's stress tests are anticipated to fail. 

In early Asian deals Wednesday, the Japanese unit revealed firmness across the board as the minutes from the Bank of Japan's June meeting showed that the board members remained cautious over  the fiscal problems that continue to plague Europe.

The country attracted our attention today is one of the newest Eastern European countries, Montenegro. Located in Southeastern Europe the country, has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east and Albania to the southeast. Montenegro is a current member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, the Central European Free Trade Agreement and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean.

The country attracted our attention today is Croatia, Internet and e-commerce infrastructure of which we are to study. Croatia, that has its capital in Zagreb, is a country located in Central Europe and Southeastern Europe at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Adriatic Sea. The country borders Slovenia to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the southeast, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast.

The new SWIFT agreement between Europe and the US was signed after an earlier draft had been rejected in February this year. The agreement was first approved in the wake of 9/11 attacks to fight terrorism activities. The agreement authorizes handing over all bank transaction data to the US.

"German policy is a danger for Europe, it could destroy the European project," according to George Soros interview released on Wednesday.

He claims, German's budget savings policy risks destroying the European project and a collapse of the euro cannot be ruled out.

Virtual European currency monetization platform, SponsorPay, that has rapidly become the dominant force in virtual currency monetization in the region, reported it has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Hasso Plattner Ventures.

As Gary Locke, the US Commerce Secretary announced Monday, he has a firm belief the long-term health of the US economy would be positive despite concerns raised by the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

We are to consider today one of the countries in South Eastern Europe, Albania, its ICT and e-commerce infrastructure. The country is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. Besides, Albania has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest.

The global economic growth remains vulnerable to sovereign debt risks and a second downturn, warned Chinese Premier Minister Wen Jiabao on Monday and underlined that his own country remain on track.

Wen said that it is still early for the nations to consider exiting their stimulus spending.

"All countries must coordinate together and strengthen support to the economy. There cannot be the least relaxation," he told a meeting with Japanese business leaders in Tokyo.