Vivendi board to discuss bids from last 2 suitors

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 2, 2003 | by Associated Press

PARIS -- The auction for Vivendi Universal's entertainment businesses takes another step forward today as the board of the French media and utilities company meets to weigh bids from two final suitors, General Electric Co.'s NBC and a group led by investor Edgar J. Bronfman Jr., officials familiar with the talks said.

Published reports Monday indicated that NBC has an edge in the long-running auction for the Vivendi Universal Entertainment properties, which include the Universal film and TV studios, three cable TV networks and theme parks.

Bronfman, who once controlled the Universal properties as chief executive of Seagram Co., spent the weekend in a last-ditch lobbying effort to salvage his bid, a source familiar with the matter said.

Representatives of Vivendi, NBC and Bronfman all declined to comment Monday.

An investment banker close to Bronfman told Dow Jones Newswires his consortium has all but lost the bidding for VUE.

Vivendi has been hoping to fetch $14 billion for the Universal assets to pay down huge debts run up during a buyout spree under former chief executive Jean-Marie Messier. But two potential suitors have balked, saying the price was too high.

After a board meeting in Paris last week, Vivendi said an eventual agreement with either NBC or the Bronfman group would leave the French company with a "substantial" stake in a U.S. media group. It also said it would explore a public offering for the entertainment assets.

NBC is the only major network that is not part of a larger media conglomerate and has long been rumored to be hunting for a Hollywood studio for access to programming. CBS is owned by Viacom, ABC is part of the Walt Disney Co., and Fox is part of News Corp.