Posted on 07/01/2002 11:36:29 AM PDT by GeneD
LONDON, July 1 — The pressure on Jean-Marie Messier to resign as the chief executive of Vivendi Universal intensified over the weekend, after two French directors asked him to step down, a person close to the board said today.
The two directors, Jacques Friedmann, who is also a director of BNP Paribas, the large French bank that is among Vivendi's lenders and Henry Lachman, the chief executive of Schneider Electric, were speaking on behalf of Vivendi's five other French directors, this person said. Mr. Messier, he continued, had lost virtually all support among the 14 non-executive directors, making his resignation almost a certainty.
"It is a matter of hours or days," he said.
A Vivendi spokeswoman declined to comment.
The reversal of fortune has been swift for Mr. Messier, who last Tuesday narrowly held onto his job when Vivendi's seven French and one Spanish director overruled calls for his resignation by the company's five North American directors, including Edgar M. Bronfman, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Samuel Minzberg, a lawyer representing the interests of Charles Bronfman.
The Bronfman family became Vivendi's largest shareholder after it sold the Seagram Company to Vivendi in 2000.
The French directors apparently changed their minds after watching Vivendi's share price ricochet last week as investors expressed their discomfort with the management style of Mr. Messier, who has been accused of failing to outline a clear strategy and presiding over a company whose financial statements are complex and opaque, people close to Vivendi said.
Also playing a role in the French directors' change of heart was the realization that a rift among the French and North American board members would cause Vivendi to lose more credibility with investors, these people said.
On Friday, the French directors met with members of the Bronfman family and agreed to work together to replace Mr. Messier, the person close to the board said.
One possible replacement is Jean-Rene Fourtou, the vice chairman of the supervisory board of Aventis, a chemicals company.
A spokeswoman for Aventis did not immediately return calls seeking a comment.
1. The reigning megalomaniac is about to resign;
2. He'll be replaced by another megalomaniac;
3. The company (which owns Universal Pictures, USA Networks and about a quarter of the world's record business) will continue to put out raw sewage as usual.
The one good thing about this is that lots of starry-eyed investors have seen the worth of their show-biz stocks shrivel -- not just Vivendi, but AOL, Viacom, Disney and News Corp. too. That's what you get when you buy stocks as a form of social climbing.
(Note that CNBC and the French paper Le Monde have reported that Messier has already resigned from Vivendi.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.