French media and telecoms group Vivendi is reportedly in store for major changes to its top-level management, with separate reports claiming group CEO Jean-Bernard Levy is leaving and the incoming CEO of mobile unit SFR, Michel Combes, won’t take up…
French media and telecoms group Vivendi is reportedly in store for major changes to its top-level management, with separate reports claiming group CEO Jean-Bernard Levy is leaving and the incoming CEO of mobile unit SFR, Michel Combes, won’t take up his post.
An official decision on Levy’s departure will be made at a company board meeting later today (Thursday, 28 June 2012), French daily Le Figaro reported, citing unnamed sources. Jean-Francois Dubos, currently a senior vice president, will serve as his temporary replacement, the paper stated, adding that Levy might take on a new role with a US company.
Levy, who has headed Vivendi for 10 years, is leaving as a result of long-running disagreements on strategy with chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou which came to a head at a two-day meeting of key executives and board members last weekend, the paper reported. Specifically, the pair’s disagreements concerned whether Vivendi should sell off some assets and focus its attentions on media or telecoms.
Vivendi, which posted a 13% fall in profits for the first quarter, has refused to comment publically on what, if anything, was decided at the recent meeting in Paris, at which executives were expected to discuss potentially major structural changes. While in April Vivendi had denied a Bloomberg report that claimed it is considering a breakup into separate media and telecoms units, Levy and Fourtou said in a later letter to shareholders that discussions of such matters are “not taboo”.
Levy has been criticised for deciding to take full control of SFR in 2011, paying €7.95bn to acquire Vodafone’s 44% stake. Low-cost operator Free’s entry into the local market not long afterward has put significant pressure on SFR and competitors.
Meanwhile, French financial daily Les Echos stated in an unsourced report that Michel Combes will not take up his post as head of SFR on 31 July, as previously announced. Combes would stay with Vodafone in a role yet to be defined. In the interim, Stephane Roussel, a manager at Vivendi, will head the unit.
Reuters said, with reference to sources, that Combes future at Vodafone was uncertain. A spokesperson for Vodafone refused to comment.