Bronfman will win Vivendi entertainment prize
The news reports say Vivendi Universal is "paring the number of bidders" in the auction of its entertainment assets. In other words, the questions being asked or the prices offered by Liberty Media and others have been hard to answer honestly or the price was too low. Here is why Edgar Bronfman, who built the business as part of Seagram's, will win the bidding.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at August 26, 2003 04:21 PM | TrackBack
Bronfman knows the answers and is still bidding. General Electric's NBC, the other bidder, is going to run into hard questions that can't be answered without affecting the NBC bid. Bronfman has been on the board at Vivendi, so even though he is not getting inside information in the past, he is far better prepared for the final rounds of bidding.
Bronfman has wanted to be in media since the day he first drank from the Seagram's faucet and has spent lavishly to become a media baron. He now has a chance to buy back what he sold to Vivendi at a discount. The only question is how much of his existing profit he will have to shovel back into Universal.
Bronfman has nothing to lose, because he's out of a job once Universal is sold by Vivendi. He is vice chairman of Vivendi because it bought Universal to get into media, and Bronfman can structure a deal that lets him do what he wants (that would be media) while making his departure from Vivendi easier on everyone, including him. For example, he could sell his stock back to the company as part of the deal, ceding influence at Vivendi, offsetting the cost of buying Universal back.