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Article Excerpt
Saddled with a mound of acquisition-related debt, Vivendi Universal SA is auctioning its publishing unit. The troubled media conglomerate, which evolved from a water utility company into the world's third-largest media concern, hopes to raise as much as $4 billion in the sale of its Vivendi Universal Publishing (VUP) assets, which include U.S. publisher Houghton Mifflin Inc. However, there is a question of whether Houghton Mifflin can be dealt off at a price that appeals to Vivendi, despite the endurance of generally good demand for solid publishing assets.
The planned sale comes after a decade of strong m&a activity in the book publishing world that has featured scores of high-profile deals and famous imprints. Results have included strong consolidation of the publishing industry and the emergence of larger publishing houses, with stables of imprints. Book publishing operations have become part of a number of diversified media operations in the U.S. and overseas, including Vivendi, AOL Time Warner Inc., Viacom Inc., Thomson Corp., McGraw-Hill Inc., News Corp., and Bertelsmann AG, all of which have been active buyers in recent years.
Former Vivendi chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Messier built the Vivendi conglomerate via an aggressive...
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