US media giant Liberty Media sued struggling entertainments conglom Vivendi Universal on Friday claiming the company lied about its crippling financial crisis when they handed over most of their stake in the USA Network company in return for Vivendi stock back in 2001. Liberty are looking for the courts to find former Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier guilty of "fraud and misrepresentation" and in doing so to cancel the deal between the two groups. The timing of the lawsuit is key – former USA Networks boss Barry Diller, whose media empire was merged with Vivendi's entertainment businesses after the 2001 deal, quit Universal earlier this month. Since the merger he had been running Vivendi Universal Entertainment, and since Vivendi's turn in financial fortune had been looking to offload some of the group's entertainment assets.
After Diller quit a sale of Vivendi's USA Networks operations became increasingly likely – which probably explains why Liberty have chosen now to declare their deal with Vivendi void. Meanwhile new(ish) Vivendi boss Jean-Ren Fourtou was in the US last week to meet with 300 executives at Universal Entertainment to discuss the way forward post-Diller. Word is Fourtou discussed several scenarios including the possibility of a joint venture as opposed to an outright sale. Universal's music operations weren't mentioned specifically however – recent reports from Vivendi's French HQ have suggested the music companies are unlikely to be sold off.