Vivendi Universal (VU) (, ) is a France corporation active in mass media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, Telecommunications and the Internet.
The company disclosed a corporate loss of 23.3 billion .
=History=
Vivendi Universal was created in December of 2000 with the massive merger of the Vivendi media empire with Canal Plus television networks and the Canada company Seagram, the owner of Universal Studios film company.
What had once been Vivendi s core business (water and waste services and other utilities) had previously been spun off as a separate company, now known as Veolia Environnement.
See the individual companies articles for pre-merger company history.
==2001==
In 2001, VU acquired MP3.com and a leading American publisher, Houghton Mifflin.
==2002==
In 2002, VU began facing financial trouble. It began financial reshuffling, trying to shore up media holdings while selling off shares in its spin-off companies.
VU reduced its stake in Vivendi Environnement to 40% and sold its stake in Vinci Construction.
The flamboyant company s Chairman of the board and CEO, Jean-Marie Messier (who had overseen the most dramatic phase of Vivendi s diversification) resigned. He was replaced by Jean-Rene Fourtou. The company then began reorganizing to stave off bankruptcy. The company announced its strategy to sell non-strategic assets. Its largest single shareholder was the family of Edgar Bronfman, Jr., who was head of Seagram at the time of the merger.
VU sold its stake in Vizzavi to Vodafone, with the exception of Vizzavi France. It also sold 20.4% of Vivendi Environnement s capital to a group of investors, and its stake in North American satellite operator EchoStar Communications Corporation Communications Corporation.
==2003==
VU sold Canal+ Technologies to Thomson (formerly Thomson Multimédia); Tele Plus to News Corporation and Telecom Italia. It also sold its 26.3% interest in Xfera.
On March 6, 2003, Vivendi disclosed its annual report (term ended at December 31,2002), that is downloadable in Portable Document Format format on its site. Some highlights include:
Corporate loss of 23.3 billion euros: the worst loss for a French company.
Net debt of 12.3 billion euros
Vivendi will sell assets for 7 billons euros in 2003
On December 1, 2003, Vivendi closed a deal to sell MP3.com to CNET.
==2004==
The Vivendi Universal Entertainment branch merged with NBC to form NBC Universal.
VU also sold its interests in Kencell, Monaco Telecom and Sportfive (which it held through Canal+ Group).
VU sold Newsworld International to the business partnership of Joel Hyatt and former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore
VU and Valve Software (makers of Half-Life ) went head to head over the distribution of Half-Life 2 to Internet cafe, they later came to an agreement stating:
The authority of distributing cyber café licenses are to be handed over to Valve from VUG (and Sierra), and licenses granted by VUG and Sierra to cyber cafés prior to the agreement are revoked.
VUG would cease distributing all retail packaged versions of Valve games by August 31, 2005.
==2005==
VU shuts down the fanmade King s Quest IX project, a few months before the final release date.
=Current assets (partial list)=
Canal Plus - 100%
Universal Music Group - 92%
Vivendi Universal Games - 99% (which includes Blizzard Entertainment)
NBC Universal - 20% long-term ownership interest
SFR Cegetel Group - 56%
Maroc Telecom - 35%
Sierra Entertainment
Seagram
=See also=
List of French companies
List of assets owned by Vivendi Universal
=External links=
*[
http://www.vivendiuniversal.com/ VivendiUniversal.com - Official site]
*[
http://www.ketupa.net/vivendi.htm Ketupa - Vivendi and Universal] extensive profile