Vivendi chiefs will meet today to discuss the sale of their entertainments companies – with only two bidders still in the running. American media company Liberty pulled out of the race yesterday claiming, like MGM and Comcast who pulled out of the running before them, that Vivendi has hiked up the asking price too high.
The two remaining bidders are General Electric, who are proposing a merger in which Vivendi would keep 20-25% of the new company, and a consortium led by Vivendi vice-chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr who is offering an all out cash sale.
Insiders are rubbishing rumours that Vivendi might turn down all offers and float its entertainment businesses saying that continuing investigations into accounting practices by French authorities, coupled with the current performance of the wider entertainments industry, would make a flotation unlikely. Whether this means the group will decide to go with one of the final two bidders at today’s board meeting remains to be seen.
As previously reported, the sale does not include Vivendi’s record labels – Mercury, Island, Polydor, Interscope and Def Jam – which the conglom decided to keep out of the equation when they announced the sale earlier this year.