Governor Schwarzenegger’s toured European last week and stopped in France, where he discussed trade, global warming and politics with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. After a 30-minute talk, Schwarzenegger said he admired Sarkozy “tremendously” and believed the president would “put a new energy in the relationship between France and other countries, and our state.” Both pledged to work together on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Schwarzenegger called Sarkozy “fresh new blood for politics in the world, because he is a politician that believes in inclusion and not in making everyone the enemy, which we have seen so many times in politics.” The Governor said he also was studying France’s method of using public-private partnerships to build schools, highways, rail lines, energy plants and other projects. Schwarzenegger and Sarkozy also discussed the possibility of twin trade missions next year, with French officials promoting their country’s products in California and Schwarzenegger returning to France. The Governor has previously organized trade missions to China, Japan, Mexico and Canada for his business associates and Corporate supporters. An additional trade mission to India is planned for the fall.

“Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (of Pasadena) has received two new contracts, one from the Indian Oil Corp. Limited and a second from POWEO Production… In its contract from Indian Oil Corp. Limited, a Jacobs subsidiary will provide project management consultancy services for a 400,000 tons per year Motor Spirit Quality project at its Panipat Refinery in the state of Haryana, India…

Separately, Jacobs announced that it will provide owner engineer support for a new 400 MWe combined cycle Gas turbine power plant at Pont-sur-Sambre, France…The facility will be the first production unit operated by POWEO Group who has been an electricity trader on the French energy market for almost four years.”

“Vivendi Games has purchased the largest game development studio in Latin America, the company said Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal with Wanako Games, based in Santiago, Chile, were not disclosed. Vivendi said in a release that the purchase will help its Los Angeles-based Sierra Online division to enhance its internal product development capabilities in the downloadable online games space. Sierra will keep Wanako’s developers… Los Angeles’ Vivendi Games is the interactive entertainment unit of France-based Vivendi SA.”

“Smart & Final Inc. has agreed to sell to an affiliate of Apollo Management LP for $22 a share in cash, the company said Tuesday… The Apollo affiliate has also entered a stock purchase agreement with Paris-based Casino Guichard-Perrachon, S.A. that owns about 55 percent of Smart & Final’s common stock… City of Commerce-based Smart & Final Inc. operates 254 non-membership warehouse stores for food and food-service supplies in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and northern Mexico.”

“Facing a backlash from scholars worldwide, UC Irvine says it will drop a lawsuit against the widow and children of professor and philosopher Jacques Derrida, the acclaimed founder of the intellectual movement called deconstruction… Derrida, a Frenchman who taught part time at UCI from 1986 to 2003, developed an influential and bewildering intellectual discipline that questions the notion of absolute truth. In November, UCI sued Derrida’s estate in federal court, saying his family had refused to relinquish manuscripts and correspondence that Derrida promised in writing to donate to the university.”

“ILOG Inc. said Tuesday it acquired supply chain vendor LogicTools Inc. for about $15 million. Gentilly, France-based ILOG – which has U.S. headquarters in Mountain View — said the acquisition of Chicago-based LogicTools is two-thirds in cash and one-third in ILOG stock.”

MySpace Launches French Site
MySpace, a popular social network among young adults launched a French version of its site (fr.myspace.com) today. Myspace has already launched versions in the United Kingdom and Italy, and is currently beta testing in Germany. Myspace is based in Los Angeles. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought Intermix Media Inc., which held MySpace.com for $580 million USD.
Los Angeles Business from bizjournals: