Tag archive: Vivendi

The United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for a lawsuit to proceed against all of the “Big Four” music labels—Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Sony, and EMI—over conspiring to fix pricing for online music downloads at $0.70 cents a song back when the online music business was just getting started. The court's decision is actually one of inaction: the Supreme Court has declined to review a… Read More

According to media reports, General Electric Company has reached an agreement pay French media conglomerate Vivendi SA a little under $6 billion for its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal, clearing the path for General Electric to sell a controlling stake in NBC to cable operator Comcast. Although the deal has been in the works for months, negotiations between GE and Vivendi are taking longer than the parties anticipated, with Vivendi… Read More

General Electric and cable operator Comcast have been dancing around each other for months, with Comcast looking to expand its already-massive business by acquiring NBC's movie and television operations in what would surely be a massive deal. How massive? According to Rueters and a report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) the companies have now agreed on a price: $30 billion to create a new, private company combining… Read More

Vivendi Games, through their Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment studios, today unveiled their E3 related line up of upcoming video game titles. Many of these titles have expected release dates of this fall and beyond. Debuting from Blizzard Entertainment, said Vivendi, is a new World of Warcraft expansion pack for the highly popular MMORPG. Dubbed World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, this upcoming PC title brings forth… Read More

Vivendi Universal Games today announced its upcoming line up of second and third quarter 2006 mobile game titles. Six games will be made available for purchase and download to compatible phones. The titles coming available, said Vivendi Universal Games include SWAT Force, which allows gamers to take control of a two-man SWAT squad and lead them through seven crisis situations; Empire Earth, which allows gamers to become generals as… Read More

More depressing news for the industry, Vivendi Universal Games has cut 350 staff and shut down Seattle-based Sierra. The venerable games company created some of the most popular action and adventuregames in the 80′s. The Sierra brand will live on in name only and projects tied to the Sierra pipeline, Half-Life 2, Ground Control II and Tribes: Vengeance are already beingdeveloped by other teams within Vivendi. Also affected by the… Read More

Interplay has ended its distribution agreement with Vivendi Universal Games and says that it is considering legal action against the publisher following a dispute over the payment of royalties. According to Interplay chairman and CEO Herve Caen, Vivendi has refused to pay Interplay money due from its latest release, Lionheart, and as such has been forced to terminate the agreement. Interplay, which is wholly owned by French… Read More