Universal Music parent company Vivendi saw its net income boom to 2.76 billion Euros in the third quarter of its current financial year, up fourfold year on year, though that was mainly due to the merger of its video gaming division with Activision, and various complicated share issuing whatnots that came with the deal. Overall, profits for the quarter were actually down 13.3 percent to 625 million euros, slightly less than analyst expectations. While the company's gaming and pay TV divisions performed well, its French mobile phone business SFR saw its revenues fall.
As for the French conglom's music assets, the Universal Music Group reported increases in both revenues and earnings, helped in the main by new revenue streams created by its 2006/2007 acquisitions of BMG Music Publishing and Sanctuary Music's management and merchandising businesses. Needless to say, income from record sales dropped, but the major says that through acquisitions and the expansion of its licensing efforts it is compensating for that decline through expanding publishing, merchandising and licensing income.