Jean-Marie Messier

History

Tax inspector, after a position of director of cabinet (1986-1988) of Camille Canted, delegated minister in charge for the Privatization, it occupies that adviser technical in charge of privatizations to the cabinet of Edouard Balladur. In 1989, he becomes banker of businesses at Lazard.

It would have been located by Guy Dejouany, then chairman of CGE. Starting from the medium of the Years 1990, it accompanies the general Compagnie by water in its transformation and re-elects it Vivendi. The strategy is then the control “of the contents and the container”; Vivendi controlling at the same time the water pipelines and the contents of the cables.

The group is then very present in the communication with Havas, Canal+ and SFR and claims to benefit fully from the Bulle Internet which will end up bursting.

It repurchases the credits of Seagram (Alcohol and Communication) via an exchange of action in which the Famille Bronfman, owner of Seagram, takes 8% of the capital of the French group. It resells the credits in alcohols of Seagram for the sum of 8,2 billion dollars to Diageo and Pernod Ricard and filialise the branch environment of Vivendi while making him carry an immense share of the debt of the group.

In September 2001, it settles with New York in an apartment being worth 17,5 million dollars on Park Avenue. The Journal “Le Monde” starts then, which some present like a press campaign against Messier.

In 2002, Vivendi is inserted in the difficulties, and declares the losses records which are put “except assessment” (because correspondent with depreciations of acquisitions paid in Vivendi titles), most important ever recorded by a society based in France.
At the same time, Messier decides to separate from Pierre Lescure, owner founder of Canal Plus, and makes lay off employees of the group. With the head office of Vivendi, the Board of directors, under the impulse of Claude Bébéar, (founder of AXA), disunites itself of Messier.

In July 2002, Jean-Marie Messier owes Démission ner. Its conventional allowances of 20 million dollars are the object of a legal dispute. Jean-Rene Fourtou, former chairman of Aventis, takes again in hand the group.

Since 2005, Jean-Marie Messier, lives between New York and Paris and directs a company of council, Messier Partners founded with a partner, the businesswoman free-Morrocan woman Fatine Layt. This company employs about fifteen people.

In December 2005, according to Le Figaro, Claude Bébéar would have officially declared the end of the setting to the variation of old “the tycoon” of the place of Paris.

Separated from his wife Antoinette (born Fleisch), it has five children and lives primarily in New York in cohabitation with Christel Delaval, former woman of Didier Schuller.

Famous quotations

“Whore, who I am happy”: at the time of the repurchase of the credits of Seagram by Vivendi in June 2000.
“the French cultural exception died”: the December 17th 2001.
then “the hour is with diversity”.
“the group is better than well”: the March 5th 2002 by announcing with its shareholders the loss record of 13,6 billion euros.

Anecdote

He is prize winner of the price of the Académie of the English Rug. He also received the Prix Iznogoud.

Its nickname J2M resulting from its initial was diverted in J6M ( J ean- M arie M essier, m oi- m ême m aître of the m wave) when Vivendi launched out to the attack of the multi-media US market.

Legal

The the United States prohibit any role of management to him during ten years on their ground. Mid-June 2004 in Paris, it again has business with justice within the framework of the investigation on the accounts of its old company. It is placed as a police custody. Messier is suspected “of abuse of corporate asset and rate manipulation”: in order to preserve the action Vivendi Universal of a strong fall the following days the September 11th, 2001 (of the September 17th to the October 2nd more precisely), the group had repurchased many action S, which is interdict in the 15 days preceding a publication by results. For the moment its administrators are not blamed.

December 7th, 2004, Jean-Marie Messier is condemned to a fine of a million euros “to have deliberately diffused (...) of inaccurate information and wrongly optimists” whereas it directed Vivendi Universal.

Books

Messier Story , by Pierre Briançon, Grasset, 2002.
a French bankruptcy , by Orange Martine and OJ Johnson, Albin Michel, 2003.
The Man Who Tried To Buy The World , by Orange Martine and OJ Johnson, Penguin, 2004

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