Vivendi Universal to shorten company name

Vivendi Universal, the parent company of French publisher Vivendi Universal Games, has announced plans to change its name - dropping the "Universal" from its title all together.

In the future, VU will simply be known as Vivendi. It's not yet known whether VUG will follow suit to become known as Vivendi Games.

The company was originally known as Vivendi before purchasing Universal. In 2003 VU sold off its media assets to General Electric in 2003, leaving GE with an 80 per cent stake in the company.

Vivendi recently posted full year financial results which revealed a marginal decline in overall profits. However, sales of titles such as World of Warcraft - which now has more than six million subscribers worldwide - boosted the performance of the games subsidiary.