Vivendi SA

Vivendi is an integrated content, media and communications group headquartered in Paris. On 14 December 1853, a water company named Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) was created by an imperial decree of Napoleon III. For more than a century, CGE remained largely focused on the water supply sector. In 1976 CGE extended its activities into other sectors with a series of takeovers. In 1983 CGE helped to found Canal+, the first pay-TV channel in France, and in the 1990s, they began expanding into telecommunications and mass media. In 1998, Compagnie Générale des Eaux changed its name to Vivendi. The company was known as Vivendi Universal between 2000 and 2006, before Vivendi in its current form came into existence, following the sale of an 80% stake in the Vivendi Universal unit to General Electric to form NBC Universal.