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Universal Music not for sale, Vivendi chief insists

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 19 March 2015

Hey you, will you stop saying that Vivendi is going to sell Universal Music? Because you’re wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. You couldn’t be more wrong. You could try. But you’d never achieve it. That’s how wrong you are.

Now, you might feebly argue that you never even said any such thing to start with, but I know it’s you who’s been spreading rumours about the entertainment firm’s intentions regards its big fat music business to French journalists, and don’t go trying to deny it.

But, says Vivendi CEO Arnaud de Puyfontaine – according to the Financial Times, which is not French, but was listening in to him speak at an Enders conference in London – music remains “at the heart of our strategy”. And as a result “the disposal of our music business will be over my dead body”.

Which sounds a bit like a challenge to me, but whatever. Speculation about Vivendi selling its music division has been fuelled by recent reports that John Malone, boss of US-based Liberty Media (already a significant shareholder in Sirius and Live Nation) had approached the Universal owner’s Chairman Vincent Bolloré about making a possible bid. Asked if Malone had indeed made an approach, Puyfontaine joked, “Ask him”.

Vivendi has been busy offloading many of its assets in recent years but, having generated billions in the process, it seems likely the French conglom will begin its own acquisition spree in the next year. And with Universal and its TV business Canal+ now at the heart of the group, alongside some smaller interests in the ticketing space, it seems likely the all-new Vivendi will have content and entertainment at its heart.