Vivendi is no longer guilty of vaulting ambition. Were Jean-Marie Messier still heading the French media conglomerate, a bid for the 80 per cent of NBC Universal it does not own would still be a possibility. Instead, a sale of Vivendi’s stake is likely as General Electric mulls some form of deal with cable network Comcast.
But paying up for growth is a hard habit to lose. This weekend Vivendi announced a knock-out bid for Brazilian telecom operator GVT.
