Les Francais sont arrivés!
Vivendi, the French media company, is looking to get back in the US media business — five years after it sold off its 20 percent stake in NBCUniversal to General Electric for $5.8 billion.
Now under the control of savvy activist shareholder Vincent Bolloré, Vivendi is currently shopping for acquisitions and has talked to at least one company about a deal, The Post has learned.
Vivendi is looking to complement its assets, which include Universal Music Group, the world's No. 1 music company, and its pay-TV ventures in Europe, sources said.
The company, with a total global war chest of as much as $14 billion, could spend as much as $1 billion on US acquisitions, several sources who have had talks with representatives of the company said.
"They're looking for tech and digital assets," said one of those persons.
As the soon-to-be cash rich company starts shopping, it is drawing up a hit list of content assets with its eye toward high growth sectors, two Hollywood sources said.
Those assets include a wide variety of assets, from YouTube Multi-Channel Networks to tech firms in the music and video space.
"They're interested in all forms of content," said one person, who noted that no formal talks with any company have taken place.
Vivendi Chairman Bolloré has been setting the future direction for the French conglomerate run by relative newcomer CEO Jean-Francois Dubos.
Bolloré has a 5 percent stake in Vivendi and a 37 percent stake in advertising business Havas. His son, Yannick Bolloré, is CEO of the global ad giant.
"Vivendi's strategy is now clearly fixed," said the senior Bolloré, speaking at a shareholders meeting in June. "It is to transform the company from a financial holding to an integrated company focused on content."
Vivendi's global war chest of $14 billion was first reported by Reuters.
The war chest continued to take shape just days ago when Vivendi reached a deal to sell GVT, its Brazilian phone firm, to Spain's Telefonica for $9.3 billion.
Earlier this year, it sold a 53 percent stake in Maroc Telecom and reduced its stake in gamer Activision.
Bolloré's man on the ground in Los Angeles is Universal Music boss Lucian Grainge, who chose to switch the music company's headquarters to Los Angeles from New York in order to be closer to Silicon Valley.
Universal netted a $500 million profit from its stake in Beats Electronics when the company was sold to Apple.
Speculation is growing about what assets could be on the block.
Grainge is a board member of Jeffrey Katzenberg's DreamWorks Animation, giving him an eye on the growth of companies such as teen Web network Awesomeness TV.
DreamWorks, with its on-and-off talks with SoftBank, has signaled it is open to a sale.
Meanwhile, Lionsgate Entertainment has been listening to pitches about becoming part of bigger entities — while pay-TV company Starz is said to be looking for a new owner.
Reps for Vivendi and Universal Music declined comment.
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