Word: vivendi
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...started popping up at Metropolitan Opera soirees and in the gossip pages. Perhaps that's fitting, since Messier is a former water-company executive who became a man-about-town and a French business celebrity by turning Compagnie Generale des Eaux into a $51 billion global media giant, Vivendi Universal. Messier did it by orchestrating a series of stock-and-cash deals for American assets such as Universal Studios and USA Networks and merging them with a clutch of European media and telecom holdings...
...that Vivendi has lost more than half its value, Messier simply looks all wet. And some of his French employees are furious. Last week an internal revolt against Messier spilled into the Paris streets after he fired Pierre Lescure, the popular president of Vivendi's money-losing pay-TV company, Canal Plus. Irate workers--claiming once again that Messier was selling out Gallic culture for profits--commandeered a studio, televised a Messier bash-in and protested near the Champs Elysees. Messier refused to back down, and his board looks certain to stand behind...
...Vivendi is just the latest media giant to suffer synergy shock. Sixteen months ago, when he bought the assets of the Seagram Co.--including Universal's movie studio, theme parks and music group--and merged them with Vivendi's European media and telecom holdings, Messier promised 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...
...idea was that by combining content with distribution and cross-promoting the heck out of every film, TV show, song, book and video game the creatives could muster, Vivendi Universal could deliver high-octane growth. To bolster that vision, Messier spent 2001 bulking up with acquisitions: publisher Houghton Mifflin ($2.2 billion), the music website MP3.com ($372 million), the TV and film assets of Barry Diller's USA Networks ($10.3 billion) and a 10% stake in the EchoStar satellite TV service ($1.5 billion). He created a joint headquarters in New York City and moved there in part to reassure U.S. investors...
...billion dollars got lost in the translation. As Vivendi switched to U.S. accounting rules, its net debt was restated upward from $13.1 billion to $17.1 billion. In January, Vivendi diluted shareholder equity by dumping 55 million shares on the market to help pay for recent acquisitions. Then last month the company announced a $13.7 billion write-down, confirming criticism that Messier had overpaid for his empire. That loss includes Vivendi's share of the $1.34 billion the company and its British partner Vodafone pumped into a snazzy Internet portal, Vizzavi, which Messier claimed would be revolutionary. Vizzavi is now practically...