Vivendi Gets Report on Accounting Probe

Vivendi Universal said it received a report from France’s stock market regulator about a probe of the company’s financial accounts under former Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier.

Vivendi has three months to respond to the notice from the regulator, the Commission des Operations de Bourse, the Paris-based company said.

A Vivendi shareholder group last year filed a lawsuit claiming Vivendi misled it, and it asked French prosecutors to investigate Vivendi’s accounts for 2000 and 2001 published under Messier. The prosecutors opened a probe in October.