The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for France was unchanged in August, remaining at 118.2 (2004 = 100), following a 0.5 percent increase in July, and a 0.1 percent decline in June.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Germany declined 1.0 percent in August to 107.7 (2004 = 100), following a 0.5 percent decline in July, and a 0.4 percent decline in June.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.K. increased 0.4 percent in August to 112.5 (2004 = 100), following a 0.1 percent increase in July, and a 0.7 percent increase in June.

Europe's executives are more bullish about the European M&A outlook than they were a year ago according to research of 225 Europe-based corporate executives by global law firm CMS and Mergermarket. Two thirds of respondents expect M&A activity will increase, with 11% anticipating a significant increase. This compares with 47% of 2013 interviewees expecting deal-making to increase, and just 1% expecting M&A to increase greatly. Attitudes about Europe's economic recovery have improved significantly and the majority believe that the worst is behind us.

As energy prices rise, end users in Europe are adopting home and building energy management systems (HEMS/BEMS) to obtain data on energy consumption. Coupled with advances in big data analytics, cloud-based solutions and Internet of things, this trend is creating strong opportunities for energy management (EM) vendors in the region. Innovative business models will, however, be needed to leverage emerging opportunities such as the demand for integrated solutions that enable communication between subsystems or machine-to-machine interactions.

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The US network security company FireEye has recently opened its new R&D centre in Dresden, Saxony. With Dresden being the key region of "Silicon Saxony", the location completely fulfilled the company's requirements: an excellent economic and scientific infrastructure combined with the availability of highly-skilled and motivated workers.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the Euro Area decreased 0.6 percent in August to 111.8 (2004=100), following a 0.3 percent increase in July and no change in June.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for France increased 0.5 percent in July to 118.3 (2004 = 100), following no change in June, and a 0.2 percent decline in May.

Germany will overtake the United Kingdom as largest EMEA managed security services market by 2018

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Germany declined 0.2 percent in July to 109.6 (2004 = 100), following a 0.3 percent decline in June, and a 0.2 percent increase in May.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Spain increased 0.3 percent in July to 107.6 (2004 = 100), following a 0.6 percent increase in June, and a 0.4 percent increase in May.

According to IDC's Europe, Middle East, and Africa Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, 2Q14 vendor revenue for the EMEA security appliance market reached $654.80 million, a moderate 6.2% year-on-year growth. Shipments increased marginally at 0.8% year on year to 174,771 units.