Looking Back: Jean-Marie Messier’s colossal mess

By SDH Unlike other overseas media companies, Vivendi Universal under then CEO Jean-Marie Messier was on a mission to become a force in Hollywood and win America over. After the Vivendi Seagram merger, which created Vivendi Universal, an entertainment and telecom behemoth Jean-Marie, became smitten with Hollywood. He was known as the French Utility exec that bought his way into Hollywood and was proud of it. At one point he was spending more time in America than back home in France manning the ship. He even purchased a multimillion apartment on Park Ave which Vivendi Universal paid for. There was almost never a Universal Studios film premier without Jean-Marie present, smooching and rubbing elbows with the stars of his movies and hanging out with the artists of Universal Music. Jean-Marie was on a mission to be the most powerful man in Hollywood, and this goal, set in motion events the eventually lead to his down fall. Jean-Marie went on one of the biggest shopping sprees in media and entertainment ever. He dropped cash on any and everything he felt would bring him closer to his goal of being the superpower in Hollywood. It seemed like every week Vivendi-Universal would announce a new deal. With a major new company under his rule, Jean-Marie landed a Businessweek cover which asked “Will Vivendi’s glitzy deal live up to the hype?” Well we all know it didn’t. Messier resigned after pressure from his board of directors who accused him of spending too much too fast, and has since gone underground, at least it seems that way. Vivendi Universal was dismantled and the company went back to being just Vivendi. It was the fall of a budding superpower stopped short by blind ambition. Jean-Marie almost achieved his goal of total dominance, perhaps it was all happening too fast for Jean Marie and the Vivendi Universal board to handle. Even Barry Diller was in the whole mix!