Telefonica
El Bulli chef and Telefónica spokesman doesn't use Facebook
March 23, 2011: 3:36 PM ETChef Ferran Adrià loves the Internet but is too busy to tweet.
Image via Wikipedia
Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, the foodie favorite who raised the profile of molecular gastronomy at his El Bulli restaurant in Catalonia, stopped by Fortune Wednesday afternoon to discuss his new role as brand ambassador for telecommunications giant Telefónica SA. (TEF)
At first blush the Adrià-Telefónica alliance may seem incongruous--like a delicate fish paired with a hearty Zinfandel--but Adrià insisted that partnership makes sense: "When you wake up in the morning, you check the time on your mobile phone, you have breakfast, then you check the Internet to see if the world is still there," he said through an interpreter. "The first 40 minutes of the day are taken up by food and telecommunications."
As part of the multiyear relationship Telefónica will provide technology and R&D support to Adrià as he transforms El Bulli, which is closing in July, into a new space called elBulliFoundation. As described by Adrià and Telefónica the foundation is part archive, part culinary academy--and all its projects will be made available for viewing via the Internet. More
-
iPhone finally reaches 1 million mark in U.K.
It took 16 months, but O2 UK, Telefonica's (TEF) British subsidiary, managed to sell its 1 millionth Apple (AAPL) iPhone before its parent company released its 2008 earnings report Thursday.
But as several news sources (here, here) were quick to point out, Nokia (NOK) a year earlier managed to reach the same milestone in less than half the time, selling 1 million N95 smartphones in the U.K. in just seven months. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 27, 2009 9:36 AM ET -
iPhone finally reaches 1 million mark in U.K.
It took 16 months, but O2 UK, Telefonica's (TEF) British subsidiary, managed to sell its 1 millionth Apple (AAPL) iPhone before its parent company released its 2008 earnings report Thursday.
But as several news sources (here, here) were quick to point out, Nokia (NOK) a year earlier managed to reach the same milestone in less than half the time, selling 1 million N95 smartphones in the U.K. in just seven months. MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 27, 2009 9:36 AM ET -
The iPhone in Spain: On again, off again
What's going on with the iPhone on the Iberian peninsula?
Although it's the corporate home of Telefonica, S.A., (TEF) one of the world's largest telecommunications conglomerates (it owns, among other carriers, Britain's O2), Spain hadn't received official word of a signed deal with Apple (AAPL) until early this morning, when a press release and an iPhone pre-registration link appeared on the home page of Movistar, the local Telefonica subsidiary.
Then, a few MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 2, 2008 9:49 AM ET
