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Vivendi's Telepiu 'sale in doubt'
LONDON, England -- Vivendi Universal, the world's second biggest media group, may have hit a roadblock in its plans to sell loss-making Italian pay-television unit Telepiu to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Vivendi and News Corp officials were expected to meet in Paris on Monday in an effort to resolve their differences over the valuation of Telepiu, part of Vivendi's Canal Plus TV division, the Financial Times reported. On Saturday, European Union competition commissioner Mario Monti said he had not been notified that an agreement had been reached on the long-awaited sale of Telepiu. An announcement of a deal had been expected last week. The two parties have been in talks concerning Telepiu for months, but progress has been delayed due to disagreements over the value of the unit and by threats of law suits between Vivendi and New Corp stemming from a failed deal to merge their Italian pay-TV operations. Vivendi, which ousted its former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier two months ago, is struggling with debts of about 19 billion euros built up after Messier's two-year multi-billion-euro spending spree to create a media group to rival AOL Time Warner. Last week, Vivendi said it would sell assets worth 12 billion euros over the next 18 months. At a news conference following a special meeting of the board in Paris, new chief executive Jean-Rene Fourtou said at least 5 billion euros worth of sales would be completed within the next nine months. These included the sale of Canal Plus Technologies -- the maker of encryption software for set-top boxes -- to Thomson Multimedia for 190 million euros in cash. Fourtou also told reporters the sale of Telepiu had already been completed and put the price tag at 1 billion euros. He later said those comments had been premature and that an announcement of the deal would be made in a matter of days. Concerning its other assets, Vivendi said last week it would sell its Internet, press and publishing interests. But the group has kept its options open regarding its 44-percent stake in Cegetel -- France's second-largest telecom group Cegetel -- which is also partially owned by Vodafone, Europe's biggest mobile phone company, and telecom group BT. In addition, the group said it had no plans to alter its 41-percent state in utility giant Vivendi Environnement and would maintain its control of entertainment assets, such as Universal Music Group, movie studios Universal Studios and USA Network. Vivendi (PEX) shares have fallen as much as 85 percent this year from a high of 64.40 euros and to a low of 8.62 euros in August. The shares were down 8.3 percent to 11.92 euros in mid-morning Paris trading on Monday.
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