Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Vivendi Universal was created in December of 2000 with the massive merger of the Vivendi media empire with Canal+ television networks and the Canadian company Seagram, the owner of Universal Studios film company. See Vivendi for previous company history. In 2001, VU acquired mp3.com and a leading American publisher, Houghton Mifflin. In 2002, VU began facing financial trouble. It began financial reshuffling, trying to shore up media holdings while selling off shares in its spin-off companies. During 2002, the company's Chairman and CEO, Jean-Marie Messier resigned, and the company and began reorganizing to stave off bankruptcy. Its largest single shareholder is the Bronfman family. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.