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Why Messier is living on borrowed time
Could today's AGM spell the end?...

By editorial@silicon.com

Published: Wednesday 24 April 2002

Who'd be Jean-Marie Messier? From relative obscurity to media magnate to embattled boss, he has barely been out of the headlines recently.

Today at the AGM of his Vivendi Universal colossus he will be facing angry shareholders, protesting Canal Plus workers - upset he recently ditched their boss - and even anti-globalisation protesters. It's only another Jean-Marie that's keeping him off the front pages - and arguably stopping him being shown the fire escape.

He is certainly a character, no less so than when hosting the great and good of the business world recently at the 'Davos on the Hudson' event. And it wasn't a big trip for him - he now resides in a palatial Park Avenue mansion, don't you know.

But there are question marks over a number of his business units, units that affect technology and media industries around the world. Whether the Universal buy from Seagram has worked is debatable. It has already meant a E14bn write-down this year but that's in keeping with peers such as AOL Time Warner (which reveals the extent of its fall later today).

And a spin-off of pay-TV group Canal Plus is also on the cards now - cue protests and controversy.

Yet it's the digital assets and 'grand plan' that are most interesting. Why buy MP3.com? Wasn't Vizzavi - the money haemorrhaging mobile portal joint venture with Vodafone - mistimed?

OK, so Vizzavi could be seen as content for mobile phone operation SFR, just as a deal with US satellite firm Echostar would be a channel for Universal films, TV programmes and even music. But this grand plan hasn't come off, not yet at least.

The challenge will be convincing shareholders that it will all come together. They want results soon - stock is down over a third this year, even if financial results also due today top forecasts - and it could be Messier feels that no amount of high life and ego-massaging is worth the current headaches.

Will Messier still be setting the agenda a year from now? We doubt it.

Who are the high-tech agenda setters? We'll be bringing you this year's top 50, as chosen by a panel of experts selected by silicon.com, from next Monday. Where will M Messier feature?