Vivendi May Be Close to Selling Stake in AOL for $700 Million

Vivendi Universal is close to selling its stake in AOL France back to its former partner for at least $700 million, people familiar with the transaction said Sunday.

Vivendi would accept either stock or cash for the 55% stake over two to three years, the sources said. Jean-Marie Messier, Vivendi’s chief, said last week that an agreement could be announced in “a matter of days, or even hours.”

Vivendi, which bought Universal Music’s owner, Seagram Co., last year, started trying to swap its stake in AOL France for a stake in AOL Europe more than a year ago so it would have access to more customers for its media and publishing titles across Europe. When those talks broke down, it decided to sell the stake.

AOL said it hadn’t reached an agreement. “There is no agreement to be announced,” said Andrei Bogolubov, a senior vice president in charge of European communications at AOL Time Warner said. “Any terms are speculative at this point.”

Vivendi spokesman Antoine Lefort declined to comment.

In August, AOL France said it had about 600,000 users, less than half of French Internet service provider Wanadoo’s 1.4 million subscribers. Liberty Surf, a rival, said it had 600,000 active users in France at the end of September.

In December, Messier said he expected the sale around the end of last year.

AOL said Thursday that the AOL figure was the latest published by the company for its subscribers in France. AOL had 4.6 million subscribers in Europe in January, up from 3.9 million in October.

AOL France’s subscribers spend more than 10 times longer on its Web site than do subscribers to its rivals, figures from Jupiter MMXI, a market research firm, indicate.