Vivendi Job Losses Hit Home
January 11, 2005
by: Eric Topf
The company has announced new staff cuts as its troubled finances grow.
News wires have picked up on a story in France's newspaper Les Echoes indicating that the money-losing games unit of Vivendi Universal is set to shed about 89 of its staff in France. This follows cuts of 29 French staff as well as close to 350 jobs in North America that occured six months ago.
The paper quoted a lawyer for the VUG works council saying that as part of the plan, management had already transfered 83 people to its Coktel studio which itself was expected to be sold.
Though while the newspapar indicated that Vivendi had created some jobs in 2004 to coincide with the launch of the hit MMORPG World of Warcraft, it doesn't say much in the face of the 185 million euro ($242.5 million) operating loss in the first nine months of 2004, compared against a 110 million euro loss in the same period in 2003.
Vivendi had recently been cited as a possible savior for French videogame maker Ubisoft who is under threat of takeover by the EA corporation. Though Vivendi had denied that any such talks about a Ubisoft takeover plan of its own had occured.
source: Reuters
