Vivendi to delist from New York Stock Exchange
French firm Vivendi Universal, the parent company of publisher Vivendi Universal Games and celebrated developer Blizzard, is to withdraw its listing from the New York Stock Exchange in a move described as a cost saving exercise.
French firm Vivendi Universal, the parent company of publisher Vivendi Universal Games and celebrated developer Blizzard, is to withdraw its listing from the New York Stock Exchange in a move described as a cost saving exercise.
The company, which listed in the United States in 2000 through an American Depositary Receipts programme, says that it is dropping the NYSE listing since less than five per cent of transactions in 2004 and 2005 were performed in ADR shares.
"The majority of shares held by US domiciled investors are ordinary shares acquired through Eurolist-Euronext Paris," it explained in a statement yesterday, "and during the last two years, the percentage of ordinary shares held by US investors has increased significantly."
Vivendi's US stock exchange listing was established at a time of extravagant expansion for the company, which has since ousted its flambouyant former CEO Jean-Marie Messier and sold the majority of its US media assets to General Electric.
However, the company, which returned to profitability in 2004 after dealing with years of crippling debt, has retained its videogames division - and last year saw a huge boost to the Vivendi Universal Games business thanks to the unprecedented worldwide success of Blizzard's massively multiplayer subscription-based game, World of Warcraft.