Vivendi rewarded for its initiatives to promote employee share ownership

Paris, November 20, 2009

Vivendi rewarded for its initiatives to promote employee share ownership

Vivendi received the second “CAC 40” award, the “Employee share ownership schemes” award, and the “Communications with employee shareholders” award, at the Actionaria fair (1). These three awards, presented under the aegis of the Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Employment, reward the best practices in employee share ownership.

Every year since 1996, Vivendi has carried out a capital increase reserved for employees that includes a discount to the share price and a matching payment by the company. Since 2008, the company has introduced an employee share ownership program with a leveraged share issue and guaranteed capital. In 2009, because of the stock market crisis and the possibility of employees being less willing to subscribe, the plan also included, in addition to the capital guarantee, a guaranteed minimum return. In this way, Vivendi offered its employees the opportunity of risk-free share ownership and a genuine sharing of value.

Stéphane Roussel, Senior Executive Vice President, Human Resources, commented: “Vivendi is particularly proud of receiving these three awards that reflect its commitment to share the group’s results with its employees. Our group wants to increase employee share ownership and, to this end, plans to innovate in this area.”

About Vivendi

A French company that is a world leader in communications, Vivendi combines Activision Blizzard (the world number one in video games), Universal Music Group (the world number one in music) SFR (the number two French mobile and fixed-line telephone operator) the Maroc Telecom Group (the number one Moroccan mobile and fixed-line telephone operator) and the Canal+ Group (the number one French pay-TV company). It also owns a 20% stake in NBCU (the leading American TV and film company).

In 2008, the company had revenues of €25.4 billion and adjusted net income of €2.7 billion. Present in 77 countries, Vivendi has about 43,000 employees.

(1) These awards are sponsored by the French Federation of Employee Shareholder and Former Employee Associations (FAS), Altedia, La Tribune and Actionaria.