Vivendi Offloads BSkyB Shares
Vivendi Universal (VU) yesterday sold a third of its stake in BSkyB, leaving it with a 15% share in the satellite television company. It is thought that the money raised from the sale, around £1 billion, will be used to fund further acquisitions by VU.
Vivendi’s decision not to offload all its interests in BSkyB at once, which would have sent a a glut of shares to the market, means that the ill-effect on Sky’s stock yesterday was limited. Shares ended down 53½p at 746p, a loss of 6.7%. By 10.15am today there were signs of a recovery, and the price of shares had climbed 7p to 753p.
