Vivendi Profit Falls but Beats Expectations

Vivendi Universal, owner of the world’s largest record company, reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit as earnings improved at the pay-television and music divisions.

Net income fell 35% to 647 million euros ($755 million) as Vivendi didn’t repeat the tax gain that helped lift profit to 1 billion euros a year earlier. Third-quarter profit had been expected to drop to 585 million euros.

Third-quarter sales rose 12% to 4.87 billion euros.