Word: messieres
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...French are very different from you and me. Except for former Vivendi Universal chair Jean-Marie Messier. He wanted to be just like a high-flying American CEO, and that (along, of course, with a 70 percent drop in the price of the company's stock since the beginning of this year) is what got him in trouble with his board and the French people. His forced resignation Tuesday sent shock waves throughout markets on both sides of the Atlantic. Shares in Vivendi fell as much as 40 percent on the Paris Stock Exchange that day as Le Monde questioned...
...known throughout France as J2M is a former water-company executive who became a French business celebrity by turning the sleepy water utility Compagnie Generale des Eaux into a $51 billion global media giant, Vivendi Universal. Messier did it with a six-year buying spree that brought Universal Studios, USA networks and a number of European media and telecom companies into the fold. His promise was to create a company that "will be the world's preferred creator and provider of personalized information, entertainment and services to consumers anywhere, at any time and across all distribution platforms and devices...
...Messier's first mistake was in perhaps biting off more companies than he could easily digest, his fundamental error in France was that he made enemies along the way with his insistence that American business culture was the future model that Vivendi would have to follow to be successful, a notion that rankled coming from a man who led both France's public water utility and one of its cultural centerpoints, the pay-TV company Canal Plus...
...Messier often points out that Vivendi made its revenue targets last year, and hit its earnings predictions--before those big charges. But this is the Enron Era. Big companies with complex finances and fuzzy growth prospects won't be getting a warm welcome from shareholders, no matter how big a splash the CEO can make. --With reporting by Bruce Crumley/ Paris and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles
...denied parole for 10th time. We?re surprised: Charles kept his cell tidy, flossed daily and wore a new string tie to the hearing TONYA HARDING Skating queen busted for drunk driving. Tonya is one of those celebrities whose every action perfectly confirms our preconceptions of her JEAN-MARIE MESSIER Vivendi Universal chief gets booed at annual stockholder meeting. He?s the least-popular Frenchman not currently running for President...