Vivendi SA (previously called Vivendi-Universal) is a French multinational media corporation with interests in music, television, film and publishing. Originally is was a bottled water distributor. With its purchase in 2000 of Seagrams, the alcoholic beverage producer, it acquired a major stake in Universal Studios and Universal-MCA music publishing. It sold off the liquor business and kept the media companies, thus transforming itself into a major media company.[1]
Vivendi is a world leader in video games (Activision Blizzard), the world leader in music publishing (Universal Music Group), the French leader in alternative telecoms (SFR), the Moroccan leader in telecoms (Maroc Telecom Group), the leading alternative telecoms provider in Brazil (GVT) and the French leader in Pay TV (Canal+ Group).[2]