Board will have to 'fire' Messier

Messier: Loses support of his board

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Vivendi Universal Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier has not resigned and could be fired at a board meeting on Wednesday, the company told CNN.

"Messier has not resigned and won't resign," said Vivendi spokesman Alain Delrieu. "At a meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) he will put his fate in the hands of the board. They will have to fire him."

In an earlier interview published on Tuesday, Messier said he had agreed to resign to save the media conglomerate and on condition that he be replaced by a Frenchman.

"My successor, whether as chairman or operational managers, can only be French. I have agreed to resign because I have acquired the conviction that they will be," Messier was quoted as saying in Tuesday's addition of Le Figaro.

Messier, 45, will confront his one-time allies on the board on Wednesday, when directors meet to decide his future. He appealed to the board not to break up the Franco-American conglomerate.

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Messier has faced calls to resign after racking up a huge debt following a $100 billion spending spree. The stock has sunk to a 13-year low amid concerns the company will struggle to cut debt and generate profits.

The company's stock plunged 15.7 percent to 20.20 euros after credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service cut Vivendi's debt to junk bond status, a move that would trigger millions of euros in extra interest payments.

The six European directors, who in the past have defended Messier from his North American detractors, are now reportedly requesting his resignation.

His biggest ally on the board, Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of the world's biggest luxury goods group Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, resigned last week.

Arnault has been credited with enabling Messier to fend off criticism over his running of the world's second-largest media company. His resignation was the fifth from the board this year.

Messier only just survived a seven-hour board meeting last Tuesday. At that meeting, the Bronfman family, which has seen the value of its 5.5 percent stake in Vivendi sink to about $1.2 billion from about $3 billion at the start of the year, and other North American directors tried to remove Messier and split the company, the Wall Street Journal said.

The board is expected to install Jean-Rene Fourtou, the vice chairman of drugmaker Aventis (PAVE), as chief executive. If Fourtou's nomination is agreed, he is expected to embark on a restructuring plan to sell assets and reduce the company's debt.