36 Facts About Vivendi Universal

Vivendi Universal SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris.

In 1997, Compagnie Generale des Eaux changed its name to Vivendi Universal, and sold off its property and construction divisions the following year to what would become Vinci SA.

Vivendi Universal went on to acquire stakes in or merge with Maroc Telecom, Havas, Cendant Software, Grupo Anaya, and NetHold, a large Continental European pay-TV operator.

In June 1999, Vivendi Universal merged with Pathe, the exchange ratio for the merger fixed at three Vivendi Universal shares for every two Pathe shares.

Vivendi Universal SA was created on 8 January 2001 with the merger of the Vivendi media empire with Canal+ television networks and the acquisition of media assets of Canadian company Seagram Company Ltd, owner of Universal Studios.

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Vivendi Universal Environnement was formed in 1999 by Vivendi Universal to consolidate its environmental divisions, which were CGEA Transport, Onyx Environnement, Dalkia and CGE water division.

In July 2000, Vivendi Universal Environnement was divested through IPOs in Paris and later New York in October 2001.

Vivendi Universal then began reorganizing to stave off bankruptcy, announcing a strategy to sell non-strategic assets.

Vivendi Universal sold its stake in Vizzavi to Vodafone, with the exception of Vizzavi France.

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.

Vivendi Universal sold its interests in Kencell, Monaco Telecom and Sportfive, and sold Newsworld International to the business partnership of Joel Hyatt and former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore.

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.

Vivendi Universal announced that shareholders had approved the name change to "Vivendi".

On 2 December 2007, Vivendi Universal announced that it would be merging its game publishing unit with Activision in a $18.

On 8 September 2009, Vivendi Universal announced negotiations to buy the Brazilian phone operator Global Village Telecom .

In 2012, Vivendi Universal 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.

Vivendi 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.

Indeed, once the SFR deal closes, Vivendi Universal will have a cash pile of 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 Universal decided to sell mobile companies SFR to Patrick Drahi's company, Altice, and GVT to the Brazilian company Telefonica Vivo.

Also, Vivendi announced extra payouts in compromise with P Schoenfeld Asset Management shareholder.

In October 2015, Vivendi Universal bought minority stakes in the French video game studios Gameloft and Ubisoft.

Vivendi Universal, searching for a new games publisher property has started investing in both Ubisoft and Gameloft.

In January 2019, Vivendi Universal completed its €900 million acquisition of Editis, one of France's major book publishers.

In 2019, Vivendi Universal acquired Nigeria's film studio ROK Studios which included it's linear channels and VOD service, IROKO+.

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The investment was made at the time when Lagardere, the assets of which include the world's third-largest book publisher Hachette, is faced with attacks from a group of fierce and well-funded activist investors, and a year after Vivendi Universal completed its takeover of Editis, the smaller domestic book publisher.

In December 2020, Vivendi Universal announced a deal to buy the French media conglomerate Prisma Media from Bertelsmann.

In December 2021, Vivendi Universal announced its plan to accelerate the purchase of Amber's stake in Lagardere.

Vivendi Universal has offered to divest the book publisher Editis, as Lagardere already owns Hachette.

In July 2022, Vivendi Universal announced its plan to spin off Editis, anticipating the European competition regulators not to allow Editis and Lagardere Publishing to merge.

In November 2013, Vivendi Universal became the exclusive owner of France's biggest pay-TV company.

In July 2016, Vivendi Universal completed its takeover of Gameloft, the world's largest mobile-games publisher in terms of downloads.

Vivendi Universal owns the French publisher Editis, which it acquired in January 2019 for €900 million.

Vivendi Universal Village owns the Paris-based concert venue L'Olympia and the Theatre de l'Oeuvre.

In 2015, Vivendi Universal announced that it will open venues in central and west Africa.

In 2021, Vivendi Universal purchased Prisma Media from Gruner + Jahr for an estimated 100 to 150 million euros.