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Vivendi seeks OK to deal
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October 2, 2000: 8:06 a.m. ET
Non-exclusive film, music concessions promised; voting rights to be revamped
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Vivendi SA has proposed new measures to assuage regulators' fears it could exploit its expanded market share in the music and film industry following its planned $34 billion merger with Canada's Seagram Co., a company spokesman confirmed Monday.
The French water-to-media conglomerate has told European Union regulators that Seagram's Universal Music unit and Vizzavi, Vivendi's Internet portal with Britain's Vodafone, would not have exclusive deals, Vivendi chairman Jean-Marie Messier told France's La Tribune Monday.
"The undertaking today is that Universal Music will not discriminate in favor of Vizzavi, and Universal Music will not be an exclusive supplier to Vizzavi," Messier was quoted as saying.
The company also told European Commission officials that Seagram's Universal Studios would cease to have an exclusive relationship for the production of French and Spanish films with Vivendi's pay-TV unit Canal Plus SA after its current exclusive agreements have expired.
Alain Delrieu, spokesman for Vivendi, confirmed to CNNfn.com that the company had offered the concessions.
Vivendi shares rose  1.65, or 2 percent, to 85.85 in midday trade on the Paris bourse.
Vivendi (PEX) announced in June plans to merge with Canal Plus, of which it already owns 49 percent, and buy entertainment and drinks firm Seagram (VO: Research, Estimates) to form Vivendi Universal, which would become the world's second-largest media company.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said last Monday that it pushed back its deadline to decide if the merger warrants an extended, four-month antitrust investigation, to Oct. 13 from Oct. 2.
Messier also said that the company would scrap its voting rights restrictions by increasing shareholder participation at annual meetings in efforts to please U.S. regulators, media reports said Monday.
The company will end a system whereby shareholders' voting power is related to the length of time they have held their shares - giving greater weight to the votes of long-standing investors - and said it would scrap the board's right to issue shares without consulting shareholders in the event of a takeover bid.
Messier declined to provide a timetable for the changes or say whether the company would also end a regulation that curbs the voting power of Vivendi shareholders with a stake of more than 2 percent. The company had previously defended the voting limit as a way to prevent hostile takeover bids.
European and U.S. antitrust regulators are also reviewing a proposed $122 billion merger between America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc. Time Warner is the parent company of CNNfn.com. 
--from staff and wire reports
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