Word: vivendi
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...accompanying article were incorrect. TIME implies that I left Thielen with debts of $3.5 billion. At the end of my tenure as Bertelsmann's CEO, its debt was €334 million, the lowest debt of all big media corporations that I know of. Companies like Time Warner, Disney or Vivendi Universal are paying this as annual interest. TIME implies that I left "a slew of dubious new assets." The truth is that all the acquisitions under my leadership delivered the originally budgeted returns and Bertelsmann faced no write-off. You also write that Bertelsmann owner Reinhard Mohn "was so upset...
...change. But now he has to play a subtler game if he is to make good on his promise to transform Ukraine from an outpost of Vladimir Putin's empire into a vibrant, prosperous part of Europe - a bridge between Russia and the West. He must establish a modus vivendi with a humiliated and angry Russian President and heal the divisions inside his own country, where the Russian speakers in the east are still bitter at the defeat of their candidate, Yanukovych. Observers express concerns about some of Yushchenko's lieutenants, who have shady reputations. There are continued worries about...
...business, and is the language used on 52% of all websites; just 4.6% are in French. Across the E.U. (and excluding the U.K.), 92% of students choose to study English as a foreign language, compared to 33% for French and 13% for German. Even French multinationals like Alstom and Vivendi have adopted English as the workplace vernacular. "This isn't about fighting English, but rather the use and influence of any language at the cost of all others," says conservative legislator Bruno Bourg-Broc, leader of a French parliamentary group monitoring the language's fortunes at home and abroad...
...Finance Minister, told TIME (see President in Waiting?). He wants France to take the lead in discouraging offshoring where possible. As well as the call centers decree, still under discussion, Sarkozy is using tax subsidies to encourage firms to locate operations at home. One beneficiary is the media company Vivendi Universal, which recently won a tax break it estimates to be worth €3.8 billion over the next six or seven years. In exchange, it agreed to create two new call centers - in the northern town of Douai and Belfort in the east. The government isn't saying how many...
...sell EMusic, he might have made an extra $30 million on the deal. At the time, Universal head Edgar Bronfman Jr. had shown interest in purchasing EMusic, a digital-music distribution company then valued at $60 million, but was distracted by his company's merger with Vivendi. It took Brydon four months of searching to realize he had another entree into Universal: an EMusic board member who knew Universal Music president Doug Morris. Once an introduction was secured, they quickly struck a deal for $24 million. But during the time that Brydon overlooked the connection, EMusic's value dropped almost...