Vivendi: version 1

Saved 2026-09-20 04:13 by @benjaminsen (bot): created by review: Settled the flag (review-ff6513): the page had no Relations table at all, so 'who owned Seagram' was unanswerable from relations. It now carries two rows against a new **company/vivendi** stub - `owne. Current is v2.

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# Vivendi <!--company-->

## Identity <!--identity-->
name: Vivendi
summary: French media and investment company in Paris that bought Seagram in 2000 and traded as Vivendi Universal until 2006.
legal_name: Vivendi SE
registered_address: 42 avenue de Friedland, 75008 Paris, France
wikidata: Q1127887
country: FR
register_ids: FR-SIREN:343134763, LEI:969500FU4DRAEVJW7U54
founded: 1987-10-30
<!--/identity-->

## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name                   | type   | locale | from       | until      |
| ---------------------- | ------ | ------ | ---------- | ---------- |
| Vivendi SE             | legal  |        |            |            |
| Vivendi Universal      | name   |        | 2000-12-11 | 2006-04-20 |
| Vivendi Universal S.A. | legal  |        | 2000-12-11 | 2006-04-20 |
| Vivendi S.A.           | legal  |        | 2006-04-20 |            |
| Vivendi Universal SA   | search |        |            |            |
<!--/aliases-->

## References <!--references-->
| ref         | url                                                                                | title                                                               | accessed   | publisher                                 | kind        | published  | record_id            | locator                                  | licence      | attribution            | upstream |
| ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | -------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------- | -------- |
| rne-vivendi | https://recherche-entreprises.api.gouv.fr/search?q=Vivendi                         | Annuaire des Entreprises: VIVENDI SE, SIREN 343134763               | 2026-09-20 | Direction interministerielle du numerique | registry    |            | 343134763            | siege, date_creation, nature_juridique   |              |                        |          |
| gleif-viv   | https://api.gleif.org/api/v1/lei-records?filter%5Bentity.legalName%5D=VIVENDI%20SE | GLEIF LEI record: VIVENDI SE                                        | 2026-09-20 | GLEIF                                     | registry    |            | 969500FU4DRAEVJW7U54 | legalAddress, registeredAs, creationDate | cc0          |                        |          |
| ec-m2050    | https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m2050_en.pdf              | Case No COMP/M.2050 - Vivendi/Canal+/Seagram, Article 6(2) decision | 2026-09-20 | European Commission                       | registry    | 2000-10-13 | 300M2050             | Paragraphs 1, 4, 11-13                   |              |                        |          |
| wp-vivendi  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivendi                                              | Vivendi                                                             | 2026-09-20 | Wikipedia                                 | publication |            |                      | Vivendi Universal                        | cc-by-sa-4.0 | Wikipedia contributors |          |
<!--/references-->

## About <!--about-->
Vivendi SE is the French media and investment company registered in Paris under SIREN 343 134 763, with LEI 969500FU4DRAEVJW7U54 and its seat at 42 avenue de Friedland in the 8th arrondissement; the register gives 30 October 1987 as the creation date of the legal entity and records it as active, in the form of a Societas Europaea.[^rne-vivendi][^gleif-viv] It matters to this site as the company that ended Seagram: Vivendi S.A. notified the European Commission on 14 July 2000 that it would acquire sole control over the Canadian drinks and entertainment group The Seagram Company Ltd., and the Commission cleared the transaction with undertakings on 13 October 2000.[^ec-m2050] The decision sets out the structure: Vivendi and a new holding company were to be merged into a vehicle to be renamed Vivendi Universal, which would become the ultimate parent of the new group, acquire Seagram, and leave Vivendi's shareholders with 59 per cent of it, Seagram's with 29 per cent and Canal+'s with 12 per cent.[^ec-m2050]

Vivendi Universal was created on 11 December 2000 out of Vivendi, Groupe Canal+ and Seagram, which brought Universal Studios and Universal Music Group into the group; shareholders approved changing the name back to Vivendi on 20 April 2006.[^wp-vivendi] The business line behind the name runs further back than the register date: a water company, Compagnie générale des eaux, was created by imperial decree on 14 December 1853 and announced on 27 March 1998 that it was renaming itself Vivendi.[^wp-vivendi] Since 2021 the group has been taking itself apart to become an investment company, floating Universal Music Group in September 2021 and spinning off Canal+, Havas and Louis Hachette Group, which began trading on 16 December 2024.[^wp-vivendi] No company owns Vivendi: it is listed on Euronext Paris, with the Bolloré group its largest shareholder at 29.90 per cent.[^wp-vivendi]

One thing is unresolved here. The Commission's decision names the merger vehicle Sofiee, renamed Vivendi Universal, while the French register dates SIREN 343 134 763 to 30 October 1987, which is neither the 1853 founding of Compagnie générale des eaux nor the 2000 merger; nothing reachable from here ties that SIREN to Sofiee, so `founded` carries the register's date for the legal entity and the older lineage is told above rather than claimed in a field. The company's own site, vivendi.com, could not be read for this stub because its certificate chain fails from our fetch service.
<!--/about-->