Barry Diller is the current head of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, the group that includes Universal Studios, USA Networks and other Vivendi entertainment assets. Mr. Diller used to run both Fox and Paramount (where he was Michael Eisners boss) and its long been rumored that he wants to play the Mega Media Mogul game again. Mr. Diller controls a large chunk of Vivendi stock and probably has more cash right now than Dreamworks does because of his recent sale of his USA Networks to Vivendi. He can buy back USA at a huge discount and use all that extra cash for Universal.
Another rumor going around town is that Vivendi may not be interested in selling Universal. The former CEOs problem had less to do with his media empire and more to do about running it from New York instead of Paris. Vivendi really is the French government-owned water monopoly and one of its major media assets is Channel Plus, a strange combination of PBS and HBO thats considered the bright shinning knight defending noble French culture from the invading dirty hordes of those Americans.
The former CEO had been very aggressive about adopting American business methods and American media philosophies. He also publicly criticized French content laws (meaning French theaters and channels must show a set percentage of shows made in France with French talent) and then fired the head of Channel Plus itself (because the place is losing millions and millions of dollars a year). Both moves were taken as an affront to French culture and to French pride. People are saying the Vivendi board and the French government want to maintain the Vivendi media assets provided they are sufficiently European. In other words, they want a Euro Major Media Empire to stand up to Hollywood.
Its also interesting to note the last quarter results. Vivendi posted a 17% increase in income during the quarter. AOL TimeWarner, a media giant in a situation growing closer to Vivendis each day, posted a 7% increase. Disney on the other hand, posted a 2% decrease in income. The sad fact is that none of the big media companies are doing well right now and many people believe its a matter of time before they all fall apart.
Yes, all of them.