Vivendi SE (stylized in all lowercase) is a French investment company headquartered in Paris. It wholly owns Gameloft as well as investments in companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and telecommunications.
In 2000, Vivendi Universal was created from the merger of Groupe Canal+ and Seagram Company Ltd., owner of Universal Studios and Universal Music Group. Vivendi sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (including Universal Studios) to the later-defunct General Electric (GE, owner of NBC) in 2004, forming what is NBCUniversal. In 2006, its name was reverted to Vivendi. GE bought out Vivendi's 20% stake in NBCUniversal during Comcast's acquisition of the latter.
From 2021, Vivendi has spun off its fully owned assets in order to become an investment company. The process started with the floating of 60% of Universal Music Group, the world's largest music business and owned since the creation of Vivendi Universal. In 2024, this process concluded with the spin-off of three of its other fully owned assets into three companies: Canal+ (entertainment), Havas (advertising), and Louis Hachette Group (publishing, distribution, and travel retail). Other investments include stakes in Banijay Group and MediaForEurope.
History Origins
On 14 December 1853, a water company named Compagnie générale des eaux (CGE) was created by an imperial decree of Napoleon III. In 1854, CGE obtained a concession in order to supply water to the public in Lyon, serving in that capacity for over a hundred years. In 1861, it obtained a 50-year concession with the City of Paris. CGE also supplied water to Nantes, Venice (from 1880), Istanbul (from 1882) and Porto (from 1883).
Following the appointment of Guy Dejouany as CEO in 1976, CGE extended its activities into other sectors with a series of takeovers. Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying from water into waste management, energy, transport services, and construction and property. It acquired the Compagnie générale d'entreprises automobiles (CGEA), specialized in industrial vehicles, which was later divided into two branches: Connex (later Veolia Transport) in 1999 and Onyx Environnement (later Veolia Environmental Services) in 1989. CGE then acquired the Compagnie générale de chauffe, and the Montenay group, with these companies later becoming the Energy Services division of CGE, and later renamed "Dalkia" in 1998.
In 1983, CGE helped to found Canal+, the first pay-TV channel in France, and in the 1990s began expanding into telecommunications and mass media, especially after Jean-Marie Messier succeeded Guy Dejouany on 27 June 1996, acquiring companies such as the Babelsberg Studio. In 1996, CGE created Neuf Cegetel to take advantage of the 1998 deregulation of the French telecommunications market, accelerating the move into the media sector which would culminate in the 2000 demerger into Vivendi Universal and Vivendi Environnement (Veolia).
Creation of Vivendi
On 27 March 1998, days after agreeing to fully acquire Havas, Compagnie Générale des Eaux announced it was changing its name to Vivendi. In 2000, it sold off its property and construction divisions the following year to what would become Vinci SA. Vivendi went on to acquire stakes in or merge with Cendant Software, Grupo Anaya, and Maroc Telecom. Beginning in 1998, Vivendi launched digital channels in Italy, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
In June 1999, Vivendi merged with Pathé, and the exchange ratio for the merger was fixed at three Vivendi shares for every two Pathé shares. The Wall Street Journal estimated the value of the deal at US$2.59 billion. Following the completion of the merger, Vivendi retained Pathé's interests in British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and CanalSatellite, a French broadcasting corporation, then sold all remaining assets to Jérôme Seydoux's family-owned holding company, Fornier SA, which changed its name to Pathé.
Vivendi Universal On 9 December 2000, Vivendi acquired Groupe Canal+, the French television network and film production company. On 11 December 2000, Vivendi Universal was created from the merger of Groupe Canal+, Canadian company Seagram Company Ltd (owner of Universal Studios), and Vivendi. That same day, Havas S.A. became Vivendi Universal Publishing.
Vivendi Universal acquired MP3.com and the leading American publisher Houghton Mifflin in 2001. To raise the funds, Vivendi Universal sold its remaining 9.9% stake in Havas Advertising to institutional investors and its trade and medical publishing businesses to a group led by Cinven.
Vivendi Environnement
Vivendi Environnement was formed in 1999 by Vivendi to consolidate its environmental divisions, which were CGEA Transport, Onyx Environnement (now Veolia Environmental Services), Dalkia and CGE water division. As a result, CGEA Transport was renamed Connex (later Veolia Transport), and CGE's water division was renamed Vivendi Water (now Veolia Water). In July 2000, Vivendi Environnement was divested through IPOs in Paris and later New York in October 2001. Initially, Vivendi Universal retained a 70% stake in Vivendi Environnement in 2000, but by December 2002, it was reduced to 20.4%. In 2003, Vivendi Environnement was renamed to Veolia Environnement.
Corporate loss
Vivendi Universal disclosed a corporate loss of €23.3 billion in its 2002 annual report. It responded with financial reshuffling, trying to shore up media holdings while selling off shares in its spin-off companies. Amid intense media scrutiny, its chairman and CEO, Jean-Marie Messier (who had overseen the most dramatic phase of the company's diversification), was subsequently replaced by Jean-René Fourtou. Messier was found guilty of embezzlement in 2011, but not before he was paid over US$20 million as part of his severance package. The company reduced its stake in Vivendi Environnement to 40% and sold its stake in Vinci SA. The company then began reorganizing to stave off bankruptcy, announcing a 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. Vivendi 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. It also sold Vivendi Universal Publishing to Natexis Banque Populaire on behalf of Lagardère, resulting in the creation of Editis. It also sold Houghton Mifflin to Thomas H Lee, Blackstone and Bain consortium for US$1.66 billion. Also, in 2002, Vivendi Universal sold the Belgian and Dutch activities of its subsidiary Scoot Europe to Kapitol, the parent company of online directory Infobel.
In 2003, Vivendi Universal sold Canal+ Technologies to Thomson SA; Tele+ to News Corporation and Telecom Italia. It also sold its 26.3% interest in Xfera. Also in 2003, it sold its consumer magazines to Socpresse and its free newspapers to France Antilles. On 1 December, Vivendi Universal closed a deal to sell MP3.com to CNET. Despite predictions that it would be unable to raise the cash needed, Vivendi Universal bought out one of the two minority shareholders in Cegetel, taking its holding to 60 percent, with Vodafone holding the remaining 40 percent. Management viewed the mobile communications firm as a core asset once the bulk of media assets had been sold off.
Further acquisitions, mergers and divestments On 12 May 2004, 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (owner of Universal Studios) was sold to General Electric (owner of National Broadcasting Company, Inc.) to form NBC Universal; GE held an 80% stake while Vivendi held a 20% stake in the new company. At the same time, it sold a 50% stake in Canal+ and StudioCanal to the new company. Vivendi also sold its interests in Kencell (re-branded Celtel, Kenya), Monaco Telecom and Sportfive (which it held through Canal+ Group), and sold Newsworld International to the business partnership of Joel Hyatt and former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore. Vivendi also sold Babelsberg Studio.
On 16 December 2005, it was announced that Canal Plus would merge with TPS, France's second largest pay-TV provider. Vivendi owned 85% of the combined entity.
On 17 January 2006, Vivendi Universal announced it would end its American Depositary Receipt program and its listing on the New York Stock Exchange by the end of the second quarter of 2006, due to lowered trading volume on its shares and high costs. On 20 April, the company announced that shareholders had approved the name change to "Vivendi". In August, Vivendi signed a deal with Spiralfrog to distribute Vivendi's songs online in the United States and Canada.
On 2 December 2007, Vivendi announced that it would be merging its game publishing unit with Activision in a $18.8 billion deal. This will allow the merged company, Activision Blizzard, to rival Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video game publisher. The merger closed on 9 July 2008, for $9.8 billion. Vivendi held a 52% majority stake in the new business.
On 8 September 2009, Vivendi announced negotiations to buy the Brazilian phone operator Global Village Telecom (GVT). Vivendi took control of GVT at a cost of 56 reais per share on 13 November, trumping Telefónica's bid. Geneva-based Crédit des Alpes was the investment bank for the transaction, originating the acquisition proposal and advising GVT's majority shareholders.
On 3 December 2009, GE announced it would purchase Vivendi's stake in NBC Universal, which would become a joint venture between GE and Comcast. Vivendi sold its stake in NBC Universal on 25 January 2011.
On 4 April 2011, Vodafone sold its 44% stake in French mobile service provider SFR to Vivendi for about $11 billion and gave Vivendi full control of its largest unit.
In 2012, Vivendi announced having entered a strategic review of its assets and decided to refocus its activities on media and content activities while maximizing its telecoms assets.
On 25 July 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the buyout of 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September, ending Vivendi's majority ownership of Activision Blizzard. In November, Vivendi also sold its 53% stake in Maroc Telecom to Dubai-based Etisalat for around $4.2 billion. Vivendi also confirmed in November 2013 its intention to launch a demerger plan which would result in Vivendi becoming an international media group consisting primarily of Canal+, Universal Music Group, and GVT, while SFR would be listed separately on the stock market. As a result of the foregoing, Vivendi Group results for the first semester of 2014 are in strong growth, witnessing the success of its repositioning strategy. Net income was up 84,8% to €1.9 billion. In August 2014 Vivendi sold GVT to Telefônica Vivo, a subsidiary of Telefónica in Brazil.
The moves allowed Vivendi to pay down debt and increase cash returns to shareholders while leaving it able to do acquisitions of its own. After the SFR deal closes, Vivendi was expected to have around €5 billion, leaving it with some room to maneuver even after it pays down debt and returns nearly €5 billion in dividends and share buybacks to shareholders.
In 2014, Vivendi decided to sell mobile companies SFR (France) to Patrick Drahi's company, Altice, and GVT (Brazil) to the Brazilian company Telefônica Vivo. On 28 May, Vivendi sold half of its remaining shares (nearly 41.5 million shares) in Activision Blizzard for $850 million, reducing its stake to 6%.