01 May 2001

Jean-Marie Messier has been on so many stages lately he is beginning to resemble one of the acts in his Universal Music stable. So far he's pulled some big crowds, but some would-be fans wonder if his deal-making abilities - which have seen him in pretty short order change a water and waste company into a global media giant - can be matched by an ability to manage it all.

In the last year Vivendi Universal's stock price has dropped from a high of Euro121 to recently trading in the mid-70s but, unlike many of its peers, VU has not revised its forecasts. In fact Messier has promised 2001 revenue growth of 10% and a growth target of 35% for ebitda. But this is just the warm up. According to Messier the main performance is still to come.

It's difficult to argue with a combo that includes one of the Big Five record companies, a Hollywood studio, TV production businesses and channels, a stake in USA Networks, the biggest European pay-TV operator Canal Plus, France's biggest publisher Havas, as well as a games and interactive content unit, theme parks, and an unproven but ambitious deal with mobile phone giant Vodafone.

Messier is first a strong believer in VU's content businesses. Sensitive to concerns that Hollywood studios have burnt the fingers of non-US owners who tried to meddle, he has kept the US management team largely in place.

And for now at least, with Universal Pictures having brought in $1bn (Euro692m) in US box office revenues last year, there is little to complain about. Messier is also an outspoken critic of online music piracy service Napster, and he has formed a joint venture with Sony Music, called Duet, to sell properly copyrighted music online.

Meanwhile, Canal Plus has orders to trim costs. Loss-making operations outside of France will either be sold or fortified by mergers, which has already seen VU's Telepiu merge with rival Stream in Italy. Canal Plus should begin rolling out next-generation set-tops by 2002, capable of storing downloaded video and, hopefully, of pumping up the company's revenues.

But it is the portal deal with Vodafone that Messier thinks will be the company's biggest hit. It is also the biggest gamble. The plan is to make Vizzavi the default portal on mobile phones, televisions and PCs for subscribers who are hooked into Vodafone and Vivendi's wireless and broadcast networks across Europe, about 40m subscribers across 14 European countries, with a further 35m potentially receiving Vizzavi as part of a package or as a secondary service.

Vizzavi has its work cut out. Yahoo, MSN and AOL-Time Warner already have formidable presence in Europe. Then there is Deutsche Telekom's T-Online, Telefonica's Terra Lycos and France Telecom's Wanadoo, all of which have dominant positions in their home markets.

Messier recently signed a distribution deal with Yahoo that could go some way toward giving VU a foothold in the US market. But Yahoo is in a somewhat precarious position at the moment with a new CEO, Terry Semel, who hails from Hollywood where he co-ran Warner Brothers studio, an over-dependency on online advertising and a weak share price.

Messier's plan is for Vizzavi to use its advantage in the wireless space to become the portal of choice as people begin to access the internet from wireless devices. He's betting that wireless will likely be the mass market internet in Europe. And as mobile catches on in the US the take-up of mobile email and other pay services should follow. But this goes beyond the mobile device to include all kinds of access devices from TV sets to PCs.

"Multi-access is to make my life as easy as possible," says Messier.

And the first step towards that goal is to create unified messaging across all devices, so one email address works on any device. This is not a new concept, but Messier thinks it's a winner and, along with Vodafone, is putting muscle behind launching MAP across PCs and mobiles this October.

By 2002, when Canal Plus has begun rolling out its next generation set-tops, the unified messaging will also be available from your TV set as well. Vivendi is not alone. AOL Time Warner plans rapid expansion in Europe.

In Europe, AOL has about five million online customers, and it has also invested in Mviva, a wireless portal created by European mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse that features AOL content.

Messier notes that by July 1, the new official launch date of Vizzavi, the MAP should have two million registered customers in four European countries (the UK, Germany, Italy and France), up from 700,000 at the beginning of April. Vizzavi pushed back the launch date of Vizzavi from last year when it became clear that GPRS phones would be delayed. "We may be wrong [about] the availability of new mobile handsets by six months and we may be wrong about the availability of new set-top boxes by three to four months, but this [MAP] is the trend of the decade," says Messier.

"If you believe the future is US-only and no internet, then please, invest in CBS Viacom. If you believe that the world is PC-centric and that becoming global is something you must still do, then, please invest in AOL Time Warner," says Messier with just a hint of a smile in his voice. "But if you believe that the world is global and is interactive and wireless, then it is time to invest in Vivendi Universal."

It almost sounds like the refrain of a hit single. The question for Messier is whether it will go platinum.