Vivendi post massive profits

Universal Music parent Vivendi have posted an adjusted net profit of 2.61 billion euros (just over £1.75 billion), which is nice. For them. Chairman Jean-Bernard Levy said it amounted to the company's "best ever results", and is surely proof once and for all that the financial disaster that nearly bankrupted the firm in 2003 is now well and truly behind them. Levy added that all of his group's operations, including Universal Music, exceeded analysts' forecasts, and that the huge profit was a particular achievement given that half of the costs of the merger of its TV division Canal Plus with French satellite TV company TPS fell into the last financial year. Now that its back on top form, Levy has indicated Vivendi is back in an acquisitive mood, and is looking to acquire new telecom and entertainment companies and to buy out minority shareholders in its existing businesses.