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Vivendi

From Alfawiki
Vivendi SE
Company typeSociété européenne
IndustryInvestment
PredecessorGroupe Canal+, Seagram (merged to form Vivendi Universal)
FoundedDecember 14, 1853; 172 years ago (1853-12-14) (as Compagnie générale des eaux)
FateTransitioned from diversified conglomerate to investment company by 2024
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Area served
Global
Key people
Yannick Bolloré (Chairman, as of 2021)
ProductsInvestments in content, entertainment, media, telecommunications; owns Gameloft; stakes in Banijay Entertainment and MediaForEurope
OwnerBolloré Group (major shareholder)
Websitewww.vivendi.com

Vivendi SE (presented in lowercase) is a Paris-based French investment company. It fully owns Gameloft and primarily invests in sectors such as content, entertainment, media, and telecommunications.

The entity known as Vivendi Universal emerged in 2000 following a merger involving Groupe Canal+ and Seagram, the proprietor of Universal Pictures. In 2004, Vivendi divested 80% of Universal to General Electric (GE), leading to the establishment of what is currently NBCUniversal. By 2006, Vivendi had sold off most of its Universal holdings and reverted to its original corporate identity. Subsequently, GE purchased Vivendi’s remaining 20% stake amid Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal. As of 2021, chairman Yannick Bolloré also oversees Havas, which was initially spun off from Vivendi in 2000, later reacquired, and then separated again in 2024.

Beginning in 2021, Vivendi shifted its focus towards becoming an investment company by divesting wholly owned subsidiaries. This transition started with the initial public offering of a 60% stake in Universal Music Group, recognized as the world’s largest music enterprise. The transformation was completed in 2024 through the spin-offs of three fully owned entities: Canal+ S.A. (entertainment), Havas (advertising), and Louis Hachette Group (publishing, distribution, travel retail). Additionally, Vivendi maintains investments in Banijay Entertainment and MediaForEurope.

Origins

On 14 December 1853, Compagnie générale des eaux (CGE) was founded by imperial decree under the reign of Napoleon III. In 1854, CGE secured a contract to provide water services to the city of Lyon, a role it fulfilled for more than one hundred years. By 1861, CGE had obtained a 50-year agreement with the City of Paris. The company expanded its water supply operations to include cities such as Nantes, Venice (starting in 1880), Istanbul (from 1882), and Porto (from 1883).

Under the leadership of CEO Guy Dejouany beginning in 1976, CGE pursued diversification through acquisitions. From 1980 onwards, it broadened its activities beyond water into areas including waste management, energy production, transportation services, construction, and real estate. Among its acquisitions was Compagnie générale d'entreprises automobiles (CGEA), which later divided into two segments: Connex (1999) and Onyx Environnement (1989). CGE also took over Compagnie générale de chauffe and the Montenay group, establishing its Energy Services division that was rebranded as "Dalkia" in 1998.

In 1983, CGE became a co-founder of Canal+, France’s first pay television channel. The decade of the 1990s saw CGE expand into telecommunications and mass media sectors, a process that accelerated after Jean-Marie Messier replaced Dejouany as CEO in 1996. CGE acquired assets such as the Babelsberg Studio and launched Neuf Cegetel in 1996 to leverage the anticipated deregulation of France’s telecom market. This strategic realignment culminated in the year 2000 with the division into Vivendi Universal and Vivendi Environnement (Veolia).

Formation of Vivendi

In 1997, Compagnie Générale des Eaux adopted the name Vivendi and divested its property development and construction units in 1998 to what eventually became Vinci SA. Vivendi expanded its portfolio through acquiring stakes or merging with companies like Maroc Telecom, Havas, Cendant Software, Grupo Anaya, and NetHold—a leading pay-TV operator across Continental Europe. Starting in 1998, Vivendi introduced digital television channels throughout Italy, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

In June 1999, Vivendi completed a merger with Pathé, exchanging three Vivendi shares for every two Pathé shares; this transaction was valued at around US$2.59 billion. Following this merger, Vivendi retained Pathé’s holdings in both the British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and CanalSatellite but sold off other assets to Jérôme Seydoux's family holding company Fornier SA, which was subsequently renamed Pathé.

Vivendi Universal

On December 9, 2000, Vivendi completed the acquisition of Groupe Canal+, a prominent French television broadcaster and film production company. Shortly thereafter, on December 11, Vivendi Universal was created through the integration of Groupe Canal+, the Canadian corporation Seagram Company Ltd (which owned Universal Studios), and Vivendi itself.

In 2001, Vivendi Universal expanded its portfolio by purchasing the digital music service MP3.com and the American publishing house Houghton Mifflin. To fund these transactions, the company divested its trade and medical publishing branches to a consortium led by the private equity firm Cinven.

Vivendi Environnement

Vivendi Environnement was launched in 1999 as a means to unify Vivendi’s environmental operations, including CGEA Transport, Onyx Environnement (currently Veolia Environmental Services), Dalkia, and CGE's water division. CGEA Transport was rebranded as Connex (later Veolia Transport), while the water division became Vivendi Water (now known as Veolia Water). Between July 2000 and October 2001, Vivendi Environnement underwent partial public offerings on both the Paris and New York stock exchanges. Initially, Vivendi Universal maintained a 70% ownership in 2000, which diminished to 20.4% by December 2002. In 2003, the entity was renamed Veolia Environnement.

Corporate loss

Vivendi Universal disclosed a staggering €23.3 billion loss in its 2002 annual financial report, triggering a restructuring initiative centered on media assets and divestiture of non-core holdings. Jean-Marie Messier, who had spearheaded the company's diversification efforts, was succeeded by Jean-René Fourtou amid increasing scrutiny; Messier was subsequently convicted of embezzlement but received severance exceeding US$20 million. The company reduced its ownership in Vivendi Environnement to 40% and liquidated shares in Vinci SA as part of broader asset sales intended to prevent insolvency.

Key investors included the Bronfman family, then principal shareholders of Seagram. Vivendi offloaded its interest in Vizzavi to Vodafone (excluding Vizzavi France) and sold a 20.4% stake in Vivendi Environnement to external investors. Additional divestments included stakes in EchoStar Communications and European book publishing sold to Lagardère Group. Houghton Mifflin was sold for US$1.66 billion to a consortium led by Thomas H Lee. The Belgian and Dutch divisions of Scoot Europe were acquired by Kapitol.

In 2003, Vivendi Universal divested Canal+ Technologies to Thomson SA; Tele+ was sold to News Corporation and Telecom Italia; it relinquished its 26.3% holding in Xfera; consumer magazine assets went to Socpresse; and free newspapers were transferred to France Antilles. On December 1, MP3.com was sold to CNET. Despite liquidity challenges, Vivendi increased its stake in Cegetel to 60%, preserving it as a strategic mobile communications asset alongside Vodafone’s remaining 40%.

Further acquisitions, mergers and divestments

In 2004, Vivendi sold an 80% share of Universal Studios to General Electric (GE), which merged it with GE's NBC division to create NBC Universal; Vivendi retained a 20% interest. Concurrently, it disposed of half of its stakes in Canal+ and StudioCanal to this new entity and exited from holdings in Kencell (Celtel), Monaco Telecom, Sportfive, Newsworld International, and Babelsberg Studio.

By December 2005, Canal Plus merged with TPS under an arrangement where Vivendi held an 85% controlling interest in the combined company. In January 2006, due to low trading volumes and associated costs, Vivendi Universal terminated its American Depositary Receipt program and delisted from the NYSE. Following the sale of most of Vivendi Universal’s assets to GE for NBC Universal by April 2006, the company rebranded simply as "Vivendi," marking a recovery from prior overextension. Subsequently, it entered into an agreement with Spiralfrog for digital music distribution across North America.

In December 2007, Vivendi merged its video game publishing division with Activision in an $18.8 billion transaction that resulted in the creation of Activision Blizzard; after completion in July 2008, Vivendi held a majority stake of 52%.

In September 2009, Vivendi acquired Brazilian telecommunications operator Global Village Telecom (GVT), outbidding Telefónica. Later that year in December, GE announced plans to purchase Vivendi's stake in NBC Universal; this exit was finalized by January 2011.

April 2011 saw Vivendi purchase Vodafone’s entire 44% shareholding in French mobile operator SFR for approximately $11 billion, thus gaining full ownership of its largest subsidiary.

By 2012, Vivendi concentrated on media content while optimizing telecom assets. In July 2013, Activision Blizzard repurchased shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion, reducing Vivendi's holding from 63% down to approximately 11.8%. That year also involved selling its majority (53%) stake in Maroc Telecom to Etisalat for about $4.2 billion alongside plans for corporate restructuring aimed at separating media assets such as Canal+, Universal Music Group, and GVT from telecommunications operations like SFR. First-half net income for 2014 increased by nearly 85% reaching €1.9 billion. In August that year, GVT was sold to Telefônica Vivo.

These strategic divestitures enabled debt reduction and shareholder returns while maintaining capacity for future acquisitions; following the SFR transaction, liquidity stood near €5 billion.

In 2014, Vivendi completed sales of SFR to Altice and GVT to Telefônica Vivo while halving its stake in Activision Blizzard for $850 million.

By April 2015, Bolloré raised its shareholding in Vivendi from 10.2% up to 12%. That year also saw Vivendi acquire an approximately 80% interest in Dailymotion for around $273 million amid negotiations with Orange regarding purchase terms. Additionally, it reached a settlement with activist investor P. Schoenfeld Asset Management. By October 2015, Vivendi increased its Telecom Italia shareholding close to 19%, aiming for greater influence; this rose further to nearly 24.6% by May 2017 when CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine assumed Executive Chairman duties. Also during October 2015, minority stakes were acquired in Gameloft and Ubisoft.

In December of that year, Vivendi secured majority control (64.4%) over Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy—which owns Winamp and Shoutcast—while original shareholders retained minority positions.

By June 2016, after initiating a mandatory tender offer and purchasing founders’ shares, Vivendi completed a hostile takeover of Gameloft and expanded its Ubisoft holdings—raising speculation about a potential Ubisoft acquisition; however by 2018 these plans were abandoned.

Vivendi’s investments in gaming aimed at reestablishing presence following early-2016 sales of Activision Blizzard shares.

The Guillemot family at Gameloft perceived these moves as hostile takeovers and responded by raising capital internally as well as attracting Canadian investors to safeguard control. By mid-2016 Vivendi gained control over Gameloft while Ubisoft’s founder increased his stake strategically to resist takeover attempts.

In June 2016, Vivendi acquired Flavorus from SFX Entertainment for $4 million along with Paddington and Company Limited (owner of Paddington Bear) plus The Copyrights Group intellectual property rights. By December that year it held a 12.3% stake in Mediaset; this increased to nearly 28.8% by September 2020.

January 2019 marked acquisition of Editis for €900 million bolstering its leadership position within French-language publishing.

The same year saw purchase of Nigeria’s ROK Studios including linear channels plus VOD platform IROKO+.

During Q1 of 2020, Vivendi sold a minority (10%) stake in Universal Music Group (UMG) to a Tencent-led consortium for $3.3 billion; Tencent later exercised an option acquiring an additional 10% by December. Pershing Square Holdings also acquired UMG shares prior to UMG’s September 2021 IPO on Euronext Amsterdam valuing the company at €46 billion.

In April that year Vivendi purchased a significant stake (10.6%) in Lagardère Group—the owner of Hachette—and doubled this holding by August becoming Lagardère’s largest shareholder at roughly 23.5%. October saw acquisition of a roughly 12% interest in South African broadcaster MultiChoice.

By December 2020 Vivendi agreed on acquiring French media firm Prisma Media from Bertelsmann; shortly after in January it obtained nearly a one-tenth stake in Spanish media conglomerate Prisa.

The September 2021 IPO distributed approximately 60% of UMG shares among shareholders while leaving Vivendi with a residual holding near 10%.

Amber Capital offered its entire Lagardère shareholding (17.93%) late that year which Vivendi accepted—accelerating acquisition plans by December. As of June 2022 post-IPO ownership stood at controlling majority (57.3%) though due to overlap with Lagardère Publishing it proposed divesting Editis.

In July 2022 anticipating regulatory hurdles merging Editis with Lagardère Publishing, Vivendi announced intentions to spin off Editis; by June 2023 it agreed on selling Editis to Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský's Czech Media Invest firm. That same month Prisma Media began exclusive negotiations with Groupe Figaro concerning sale of Gala magazine; both Editis and Gala magazine deals were concluded by November that year.


Division of entertainment, publishing, advertising, and investment sectors

On 13 December 2023, Vivendi declared its intention to segregate its Canal+, Havas, publishing division (including holdings in Lagardère and Prisma Media), Gameloft, and investment assets (such as Universal Music Group, TIM, MFE, Banijay, Prisa, Telefonica) into four separate entities. This restructuring plan received endorsement from the supervisory board on 30 January 2024.

By 22 July 2024, Vivendi announced that the newly formed publishing entity would be named Louis Hachette Group. Canal+ and Havas were set to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam, respectively, while LHG would be traded on Euronext Paris. Canal+ would continue to operate under French corporate jurisdiction.

On 29 October 2024, the supervisory board once again confirmed its support for the separation strategy. Vivendi planned to maintain its listing on Euronext Paris and transition into an investment-focused company. The shareholders ratified the spin-off on 9 December 2024. The newly independent companies commenced trading on 16 December 2024.

Description and location

The company’s registered name is Vivendi SE (Societas Europaea). Its main office is located at 42 Avenue Friedland, 75008 Paris.

Corporate governance

As of 31 December 2019, Vivendi's shareholder composition was:<ref>

Supervisory board

As of 16 May 2020, the board members included:<ref>

Business units

Vivendi centers its activities around digital entertainment and owns the French video game developer Gameloft. Since the appointment of president Vincent Bolloré in June 2014, the company has pursued enhanced collaboration among its media subsidiaries, including Gameloft.<ref>

Gameloft

Vivendi finalized its acquisition of Gameloft, recognized as the leading mobile games publisher worldwide by download volume, in July 2016. In that year alone, Gameloft surpassed one billion downloads for its games, solidifying its prominent position in the mobile gaming industry.

Disinformation

In July 2024, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) accused Vivendi of participating in a disinformation campaign targeting the organization. Earlier the same year, following a complaint from RWB, the Conseil d'État mandated that Vivendi’s CNews enhance its journalistic standards and promote diversity. Subsequently, RWB exposed a disinformation scheme linked to Progressif Media—an agency hosted by Vivendi—that operated a counterfeit RWB website and employed tactics such as impersonation and trolling to damage RWB’s reputation.

See also

External links

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