Jean-Marie Messier, the self-styled “Master of the World” when he was chief exec of Vivendi Universal, left his lofty post in 2002. But he never seems to leave the limelight. In probably the last twist to his notorious Viv U tenure, Messier was cleared last week of insider trading by a Paris prosecutor. Also exonerated are former Viv U vice-chairman and Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. and five other execs.
The case against Messier — involving alleged share price manipulation and misleading reporting — still has to be reviewed by a magistrate, but further prosecution looks unlikely.
Messier’s innocence reputation is already tainted, however. In 2004, France’s Financial Market Authority fined him $1.3 million, a figure cut in half on appeal, for misleading investors about Viv U’s debt.
Accusations of stock manipulation date back to Viv U’s plunging share price from 2000.
Messier went on an acquisitions tear in the bull market of the late ’90s, bulwarked by Vivendi’s seemingly ever-soaring stock price, which rose during the dot-com bubble. The purchase of Seagram alone — which brought Universal Studios, MCA Records and USA Networks into the fold — cost Vivendi $42 billion in 1999.
“With Messier, you only had to pass him in the street and he’d say, ‘I’ve done a deal,’ ” Rupert Murdoch once said.
But in 2000, when the Internet bubble burst, Viv U began desperately buying back shares to shore up its stock price. The result: near bankruptcy — and the court case.
Most of France already thinks Messier guilty of heinous acts, such as buying a swank Park Avenue penthouse for $17.5 million with Viv U coin.
Last month, Messier appeared on French TV and radio, preaching, of all things, capitalist ethics - a moral crusade that galled many Gauls.
In France ``Messier is hated and out-of-fashion, not part of the Sarkozy clique,'' says one TV analyst.
But Messier, now a banking consultant, isn’t the sort to crawl under a stone. And in these troubled times, he’s certainly newsworthy: Everybody loves to hate a fallen mogul, however many court cases he wins.
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