Boardroom coup ends Messier's reign at Vivendi
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Your support makes all the difference.Jean-Marie Messier, the embattled chief executive of the media giant Vivendi Universal, agreed to resign yesterday after he lost the backing of his last remaining supporters on the board.
His departure marks the end of a debt-fuelled two-year adventure that turned a dull French water company into the world's second-biggest media company, but ended with Vivendi posting the biggest loss in French corporate history.
Mr Messier's replacement is expected to be Jean-Rene Fourtou, vice-chairman of the drug maker Aventis who is expected to take on the role on a stop-gap basis for the next six months.
Shares in Vivendi, which have fallen 61 per cent this year as the group's woes have increased, rallied on news of Mr Messier's departure, rising by 9 per cent or €2.02 euros in Paris.
Mr Messier's fate was sealed after Vivendi's five North American directors voted to oust him last week. The coup was led by Edgar Bronfman Jr and his family who became Vivendi's biggest shareholders with a 5.3 per cent stake after the company's takeover of their Seagram entertainment and drinks empire two years ago.
Following the vote, Vivendi's French board members began to desert him one by one, starting with his long-time ally Bernard Arnault, chairman of the luxury goods group LVMH.
Investors had been calling for Mr Messier's head since Vivendi announced a €13.6bn loss for 2001 following a spending spree which left the group nursing a €17bn pile of debt.
Mr Fourtou, 63, spearheaded the 1999 merger of Rhone-Poulenc and Hoechst which created Aventis. He is also on the board of the French insurer Axa.
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