As the chaos at Vivendi Universal continues its former-CEO Jean-Marie Messier, who resigned last week, has secured a multimillion-pound payoff. The group’s board is expected to sign off a £11.5 million pay off today. The size of the golden handshake is ironic because in his autobiography, ‘Moi-Meme Maitre Du Monde’ (Myself, Master Of The Universe), Messier criticised grand pay-offs for sacked bosses, saying that chief executives who failed to deliver should not receive grand rewards. The Group is expected to announce a successor to Messier later today. It will be a tough task - the new chief executive will have to secure bridging finance for the group after the financial crisis at Vivendi, caused by reports of false accounting, caused the Group’s credit rating to be cut raising the cost of servicing its £12bn debt burden. It is still likely that the only solution will be the break up of the Group which would means its music concerns – the Universal Music Group (Mercury, Polydor and Island in the UK) – would be up for sale.
Jul 3, 2002
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1 min read
Vivendi boss gets multi-million pound pay off
Former Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier is expected to receive an £11.5 million pay-off, despite criticising such payments in his autobiography.