Word: bronfmans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Messier was forced to resign when French board members joined the biggest North American shareholders--the Bronfman family, led by Vivendi vice chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr.--in concluding that French business honor (not to mention Bronfman billions) could be redeemed only by bringing on a new boss. Jean-Rene Fourtou, a well-respected pharmaceuticals-industry veteran, is now in charge...
...chief economist for Natexis-Banques Populaires in Paris. "That will involve straightening out the books so investors can see exactly where things stand." It might also mean setting Vivendi's U.S. assets loose, possibly into the hands of Diller, who has already profited mightily in dealmaking with Messier and Bronfman...
Ever since he was a teenager, more interested in producing movies than in the prospect of running his family's liquor empire, Edgar Bronfman Jr. has faced his share of skeptics. One of the first, in fact, was his grandfather Samuel, a Russian immigrant to Canada who advanced from Prohibition bootlegger to spirits magnate, owner of a portfolio that included Chivas Regal Scotch and Captain Morgan rum. In a mid-1990s documentary about the family, Edgar Jr. recalled his grandfather saying, "Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations. I'm worried about the third generation." Such doubts didn't seem...
Well, not the whole thing, at least. Since Bronfman took the helm from his father Edgar Sr. in 1994 and uncorked a new, media-centric strategy, the family's holdings in Seagram, and now Vivendi, have lost 75% of their value and are currently around $1 billion. Seeking high-growth businesses, Bronfman ultimately jettisoned the famous spirits business, an unpopular move with part of the family. "From the beginning of this escapade, [Bronfman's uncle] Charles has been dead set against [it]," says a Bronfman-family insider. And to finance his $5.7 billion purchase of movie studio MCA/Universal...
...published writer of cheesy love songs, Bronfman made a big bet on the music business in 1998, shelling out $10.4 billion to buy Polygram. Unfortunately, with digital piracy starting to take a chunk out of CD sales, his timing isn't looking great. "I wouldn't leave him with a kindergarten class. I think he has shown a lack of ability to manage anything," says Michael Palmer, president of Toronto-based Veritas Investment Research...