Messier pockets £11.5m pay-off

VIVENDI Universal chief executive Jean-Marie Messier thumbed his nose at investors on Wednesday, skipping a board meeting due to vote him out, and quitting the embattled French media group with a £11.5m golden parachute.

The pay-off - three times his salary and bonus last year and more than the initial £7.8m estimate - is the final insult to investors who have seen the Hollywood studios and global music empire lose almost 80% - or £31bn - of its market value in six months. But they still may get the last laugh as Messier is thought to have borrowed a hefty sum to buy Vivendi shares when they were £32. Last night they were 890p, down 250p.

Vivendi's dive continued as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp cut its £960m offer for Italian pay-TV unit Telepiu, stoking fears over Vivendi's ability to cover its £12.5bn debt. Continuing worries about the French group's accounts - once audited by the disgraced Andersen - did not help.

Jean-Rene Fourtou, of drug multinational Aventis, has taken up the reins. His first task will be securing £1.5bn short-term finance and setting out a new strategy to restore rock-bottom confidence. Radical surgery is likely, but in a time of such uncertainty the task looks huge.

Vodafone has its sights on Vivendi's 35% stake in its French mobile arm SFR. But Vodafone fell 5 1/2p to 80 1/2p on fears that up to £4bn of extra debt would be needed for the bid. Rumours of accounting problems - denied - also hurt. Vodafone may still be trumped, if foreign bids for Vivendi's French water and TV businesses are blocked by the French government. In this case, SFR may be kept and the US entertainment and publishing assets sold.