Vivendi ordered to pay Liberty Media $950 million

The French media company Vivendi has vowed to appeal the verdict of a federal jury that determined it must pay the American media conglomerate Liberty Media about $950 million in a dispute that dates back to Vivendi's 2002 financial collapse.

Liberty Media contended that Vivendi, under its former chief Jean-Marie Messier, fraudulently concealed the dire nature of the company's finances and liquidity from Liberty Media and other investors. Vivendi agreed in December 2001, amid much fanfare, to buy the lucrative USA cable network, the Syfy channel and USA's robust television production studio, assets then managed by Barry Diller, in a stock and cash deal estimated at $10 billion. Liberty Media owned 21% of USA — a stake then valued at nearly $2 billion. But the French company's cataclysmic stock collapse in 2002 erased much of the value of Liberty's holdings in Vivendi. The USA Network deal closed in 2002. Liberty had asked the federal jury in New York to grant it an award of 841 million euros. After a four-week trial and nearly two days of deliberations, the jury on Monday returned an award of 765 million euros, or about $950 million.