Ex-Vivendi chief wins £14m pay-off

MEDIA group Vivendi Universal has been ordered to pay more than £14m to ousted chief executive Jean-Marie Messier.

A New York tribunal rejected Vivendi's claim that the pay-off Messier had sought had not been approved by the board. Vivendi said it would contest the tribunal's decision.

The group fired Messier last July amid an investor revolt about its finances. Messier had embarked on a massive buying spree - amassing more than $30bn (£18.2bn) of debt - to try to transform Vivendi into a media and entertainment giant to rival AOL Time Warner.

Messier claimed he was owed $20m in severance written into the US part of his contract.

The arbitration tribunal rejected Vivendi's claim that this termination pact be voided.

The tribunal's decision will also infuriate shareholders, some of whom have banded together via a class-action lawsuit in the US to try to prove Messier misled them about the company's health in the last months of his tenure.

Successor Jean-Rene Fourtou has pursued a fire sale of assets that included Vivendi's publishing unit, its internet holdings and art works in an effort to turn the company around.