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Universal Music owner sells off remaining tel co asset
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 22 September 2014
Universal Music owner Vivendi is selling its Brazilian broadband business GVT to tel co giant Telefonica in a seven billion euro deal, it’s been announced. Vivendi will receive 4.66 billion euros in cash, and will get shares in Telefonica Brazil and Telecom Italia as part of the arrangement.
It’s part of Vivendi’s long drawn out withdrawal from the telecoms industry, it having sold off its struggling French phone firm SFR earlier this year. It means the conglom is now pretty much exclusively focused on the entertainment industry, with its two main assets being Universal Music and the Canal+ television business.
The deal was generally well received by analysts, though one told Bloomberg: “Good news for Vivendi [but] we expect the next step to be a more concrete outlining of their strategy”.
It is thought that strategy will focus on expanding Vivendi’s TV interests beyond the French market.