Vivendi lines up $10 billion sale

Fourtou: Reviewing all assets

PARIS, France -- Vivendi Universal plans to sell assets worth at least 10 billion euros ($9.78 billion) in an effort to control debts, the media giant said on Wednesday.

Among the assets for sale is Boston-based publisher Houghton Mifflin, which Vivendi bought for $2.2 billion in June 2001.

Vivendi (PEX) chairman and CEO, Jean-Rene Fourtou, says a detailed review of all assets is planned for September 25. The world's second biggest media company wants to raise five billion euros over the next nine months.

Its share price fell 3 percent to 15.40 euros in early trading on Wednesday in Paris.

MORE STORIES • Fourtou: Safe pair of hands?     RESOURCES • Vivendi Universal: Business breakdown

Vivendi, which owns Universal Studios and record labels with artists like U2 and Eminem, was forced to write down the value of assets in late April by 17.06 billion euros, under U.S. accounting standards, causing it to report a 17 billion euro first-quarter loss.

The previous CEO, Jean-Marie Messier, spent billions building up the empire to challenge the world's biggest media group, AOL Time Warner (AOL), which is the parent of CNN.

Acquisitions included a $30 billion buyout of Canada's Seagram and a $10.3 billion purchase of USA Networks, a cable and entertainment company run by Hollywood mogul Barry Diller.

Fourtou has pledged to reduce the company's debt mountain of 19 billion euros, possibly by selling assets not critical to Vivendi's main business focus. That could include its video games unit, the Wall Street Journal said last week. (Full story).