Vivendi, UMG future music to Levy's ears

September 20, 2007 An upbeat Jean-Bernard Levy, the Paris-based chairman and CEO of Vivendi since 2005, said Wednesday that he expects to meet his company's income forecast for the year and touted his Universal Music Group as the only "healthy and stable" company in the music industry. Speaking here at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, Levy said he is "very optimistic" that the French conglomerate will "meet and probably beat" his company's guidance of net income of €2.7 billion ($3.8 billion) for the year, which was set last month. In addition to owning UMG and retaining a 20% stake in NBC Universal, the company operates telecom properties in France and Morocco, the French Canal Plus pay TV stations and Vivendi Games, the publisher of role-playing game "World of Warcraft," which has millions of subscribers.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.