Vivendi

Vivendi
Type	Public
Founded	December 14, 1853 (Compagnie générale des eaux) 1997 (Vivendi SARL) June 2000 (Vivendi Universal) March 3, 2006 (Vivendi SA)
Headquarters	Paris, France
Key people	Napoleon III (decreed for it be founded)
Industry	media
Products	media
Number of people	38,315
Website	https://vivendi.com/

Vivendi SA is a French media holding company.

Compagnie générale des eaux

Compagnie générale des eaux was a French state-owned water company created by a Decree by Napoleon III on December 14, 1853.

Expansion into other markets

Guy Dejouany became CEO of Compagnie générale des eaux in 1976, and expanded the company into multiple markets by acquiring companies already serving those sectors.

Vivendi SARL

In 1997, Compagnie générale des eaux was renamed Vivendi after the word "vivendus", a Latin participle that means "which is to be lived".

Vivendi Universal

Seagram, the Canadian beverage and entertainment was broken up in 2000. In June 2000, Seagram's entertainment division was sold to Vivendi. After Vivendi acquired the French media conglomerate Groupe Canal+, the companies were merged into Vivendi Universal, on December 11, 2000.

Vivendi SA

On March 3, 2006, Vivendi Universal sold the majority of its media operations to General Electric and was renamed back to Vivendi.