Vivendi Universal

From ArticleWorld

Vivendi Universal is a France based conglomerate having activities related to media & communications, like in the fields of music television, in films, publishing telecommunications and the internet.

Origin

The company came into existence in Dec of 2000 by the merger of Vivendi Media Empire with Canal+television networks & Seagram of Canada. The core business has been offloaded into another company, presently Veolia Environment. During the reign of Jean- Marie Messier, the chairman & CEO, he took to the process of quick expansion of Vivendi Universal. The vision of the flamboyant CEO were a bit too ambitious, building huge losses in the process leading the company almost to the brink of bankruptcy, showing how personal greed can lead to a collapse of a company.

Happening Events

Series of events have occurred since the inception of Vivendi Universal. In 2001, the acquisition of MP3.com & Houghton Miffin, a leading publishing house of the US. The real problems began in 2002 when the finances of the company landed up in a mess, which saw a lot of reshuffling & unrest in the company. The Charismatic Chairman & CEO had resigned, being replaced by Jean-Rene Fourtou, who in turn started to rearrange the finances of the company, preventing it from going bankrupt. The end of troubles did not end here & in the year 2003 Vivendi Universal disclosed in its annual general meeting a corporate loss of 23.3billion Euros and putting the net debt at 12.3 billion Euros. MP3.com had to be sold to CNET for 7 billion Euros. The year 2004 had seen a lot of activity like the Vivendi Universal Entertainment being merged with NBC, forming NBC Universal. In 2005, Vivendi Universal had reached an agreement with Pheonix Freeware for their internet game Kings Quest IX.

Vivendi has quoted that they will terminate the American Depository Receipts & de-list from the NYSE due to its high costs and low volumes.