Vivendi Chairman Says HM Not for Sale

Agnes Touraine, president of Vivendi Universal Publishing, appears to have won her argument to keep Houghton Mifflin within the Vivendi family. In an e-mail from new Vivendi chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou to Touraine, Fourtou said that all rumors concerning the sale of Houghton Mifflin "are totally unfounded. We are proud of this company and of all the integration successes. Houghton Mifflin is in the VUP perimeter and will remain part of it." In addition to the Touraine memo, Eddie Kritzer, principal of Eddie Kritzer Associates, a Beverly Hills, Calif.–based media broker, said he was told by Fourtou Tuesday night that Vivendi had decided not to sell HM.

Since the resignation of Vivendi's former chairman Jean-Marie Messier, there has been widespread speculation that Vivendi would sell HM in order to help pay down the French media giant's $18 billion debt. Touraine apparently was able to convince Fourtou that HM is a key part of VUP and that it was more worthwhile to keep the Boston-based publisher than to divest it.

Collin Earnst, HM spokesperson, said HM CEO Hans Gieskes included the Fourtou note in an internal communication sent to all HM employees. He said the feeling at the company is that "it's business as usual."

In that business-as-usual context, VUP's game division has signed a North American distribution agreement with Simon & Schuster to distribute S&S's interactive products for the next two years. The first title distributed by VUP, Outlaw Golf, has become a bestseller and "proved that they have an extraordinary distribution network," said Giles Dana, president of S&S Interactive.