Vivendi SA News

WHEN Vivendi, a French telecoms and media group, announced a deal to buy GVT, a Brazilian telecoms firm, for 2 billion in September, the last thing it expected was a scolding from the Elyse Palace, the official residence of France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

France Telecom SA, Vivendi SA and Bouygues SA may face a price war in one of their fastest-growing businesses after Xavier Niel's Iliad SA enters the French mobile-phone market.

Having a serious medical condition makes it hard for teens to cope with already-difficult realities of being a teenager.

Vivendi: Vivendi has nine months to show investors its worth. The French conglomerate might not see any of the $5.8 billion it is making from the sale of its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal until September next year.

Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable-television operator, agreed to form a $37 billion joint venture combining General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal with its own media assets, strengthening a push into programming.

General Electric Co and Comcast Corp are set to announce a joint venture on Thursday morning that would give the cable company eventual control of NBC Universal in this year's biggest media deal.

Universal Music Group Chief Doug Morris , head of the worlda s biggest record label, is playing ad- man to lure marketers to the Vevo music-video Web site in the latest bid to rebuild the industry.

The Treasury's debut auction successfully tested a market mechanism for selling the warrants it received as an extra possible source of return when it injected taxpayer funds into banks.

Universal Music Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Morris said he's chosen a successor at the world's largest record label, international music head Lucian Grainge .

Jean-Marie Messier , the former Vivendi SA chief executive officer being sued for securities fraud, told jurors the companya s 89 percent stock drop on his watch was the result of a a oeperfect storma and not fraud.

General Electric Co. reached an agreement late Monday to buy the 20 percent stake in NBC Universal held by French media conglomerate Vivendi SA, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who requested anonymity because the talks were private.

Vivendi SAa s $5.8 billion accord today to sell its 20 percent NBC Universal stake ends a decade- long U.S. film and television presence and gives Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy funds to expand in emerging markets.

Paris-based media and telecoms conglomerate Vivendia s recent acquisition of Brazilian telco Global Village Telecom is reportedly being examined by the countrya s regulatory authorities, even though the French firm has just upped its holding in the firm through private stock purchases.

Entrepreneur Xavier Niel has come a long way since the 1990s, when he ran a sex-chat service on Minitel, an early French online service.

General Electric has reached an agreement to acquire Vivendi SA's 20% stake in NBC Universal, setting the stage for the creation of one of the largest U.S. media companies, according to published reports, potentially resolving long-standing headaches for investors in both companies.

Comcast Corp.'s planned takeover of NBC Universal will draw scrutiny from Obama administration regulators who have said consolidation of U.S. media companies may thwart competition.

Stock buying picked up momentum Tuesday as rising commodity prices and reports on manufacturing and housing pointed to a rebound in the economy.

The companies aren't commenting but it sounds like Vivendi and General Electric may have reached an agreement that will pave the way for the much-discussed deal that would make Comcast a majority owner of NBC Universal .

Nov. 30 -- Nicholas Heymann, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., talks with Bloomberg's Deirdre Bolton and Erik Schatzker about the outlook for General Electric Co.'s sale of NBC Universal.

Rescuing Comcast deal? GE's CEO meets with Vivendi's CEO in Paris to try and push along talks over the eventual jettisoning of NBC Universal.