Vivendi SA is a French media company.
It can trace its origins to 1853, when Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) was created by imperial decree by Napoleon III, with the task of supplying water. It would remain in the water industry until 1976, when it began expanding into other sectors. In the 1990s, it expanded further into telecommunications and mass media, changing its name to "Vivendi" in 1998.
Today, Vivendi is one of the largest media companies in the world, with stakes in multiple fields.
Companies, past and present, owned by Vivendi:
- Canal Plus (French pay-TV service; originally just one channel, now it encompasses a slew of channels and both satellite and streaming TV services)
- StudioCanal (Motion picture production/distribution firm; owns the libraries of Thorn EMI, Carolco Pictures and Embassy Pictures, among others)
- Editis (French book publisher)
- Gameloft
- Ubisoft (former)
- Universal Music Group
- Vivendi Universal Games (former)
- Activision (former)
- Activision Blizzard (former)
- Blizzard Entertainment (former)
- Radical Entertainment (former)
- Sierra (former)
