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Vivendi saga: A tale of two moguls
PARIS, France -- A new chapter is being written in the U.S. by media mogul Barry Diller as former Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier releases his memoirs in France. Messier, 45, was ousted in July for wracking up a 19-billion-euro debt following a spending spree on acquisitions -- including USA Networks run by Diller. Messier's new book "Mon Vrai journal" ("My True Diary"), is a kiss-and-tell account of how he was "betrayed by the French establishment." In his memoirs, he admits making a lot of mistakes during his six-year-reign as head of Vivendi, a once unglamorous water utility, the Compagnie Generale des Eaux, that he turned into the world's second largest media company -- after CNN parent AOL Time Warner.
"I did not listen to repeated warnings from my collaborators, my friends, my wife," Messier told French newspaper Liberation. "I failed and I'm starting again from scratch." He said he could no longer afford the rent of his $17.5 million Park Avenue apartment the company bought him last year when he decided he needed to run Vivendi from New York. Since his ousting, the apartment has been put up for sale and Messier is being charged rent -- $31,000 a month -- to live there. "I am leaving it soon because I can't afford the monthly rent any longer," he told Liberation. In contrast to the fallen French businessman who liked the bright lights and glitz of the American entertainment industry, Diller, 60, was trying to leave Tinseltown to run his own Internet company when he was dragged back in to managing the company's entertainment divisions. He has just been named the new co-chief executive of Vivendi's U.S. units, which includes the Universal group, the world's largest music business, and a movie studio. Diller is a long-time Hollywood executive who got his start in a mailroom and clawed his way to becoming a Hollywood agent and then going on to run movie and TV studios.
He is credited with developing the concept of TV mini-series and TV movies while working at the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). In 1975, he became chairman of Paramount studios and then left to work for Fox, where he helped revive the ailing studio with blockbusters like "Big" and "Die Hard." In a move to rejig its debt-laden finances, Vivendi -- under the stewardship of the new chief executive Jean-Rene Fourtou -- said on Friday it had successfully placed 885 million euros of a new three-year, 8.25 percent bond with institutions. It also plans to offer the bonds to retail investors, potentially raising the deal to a billion euros. "This issue will allow the company to considerably improve its financial flexibility,'' Vivendi said in a statement. But in the midst of trying to shed itself of acquisitions, it is searching for funds to make a counter-offer for full control of Cegetel in a tug-of-war with Britain's Vodafone. Vivendi's one million shareholders have seen the value of its stock plunge 80 percent this year, which analysts blame in part on Messier. Messier told France 2 television on Thursday that he too went into debt because he invested all his savings in Vivendi Universal. When asked by Liberation if he had been depressed since his downfall, he said: "I don't have time to get depressed -- that's a luxury for the rich."
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