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Turmoil hits media and entertainment giant

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

PARIS -- Jean-Marie Messier, the outgoing chief of Vivendi Universal, expressed fears today that the media and entertainment giant he built would now be dismantled.

"I hear, I see the predators prowling, the advisers putting together break-up plans," Messier said. "My most earnest hope is that the board of directors, as well as the various authorities concerned, don't wreck this achievement."

The Paris stock exchange suspended trading in Vivendi Universal shares four times by early afternoon today as they plummeted in value by as much as 34 percent.

The plunge came after the ratings agency Moody's downgraded Vivendi's long-term debt to junk status. The agency cited concerns over Vivendi's ability to service its debt, its recent acquisitions and its failure to complete sales of certain assets.

The share price decline followed Messier's announcement that he was leaving and a report by the newspaper Le Monde that Vivendi sought to embellish its 2001 accounts by 1.5 billion euros ($1.47 billion) related to its sale of its stake in pay-television company BSkyB, contravening French market rules.

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