Vivendi chief making a splash as the 'new Murdoch'

Jean-Marie Messier, head of Vivendi, is famous in France for once having his picture published in Paris Match with a hole in the big toe of his sock.

The 45-year-old son of a Grenoble accountant who scorns limousines is also known of course for transforming a Parisian sewer and water utility called the GΘnΘrale des Eaux into the second largest media group in the world, behind AOL Time Warner.

Now called Vivendi Universal, the group includes the Canadian drinks company Seagram and Seagram's Hollywood movie-maker, Universal Studios, which recently brought to a screen near you such hits as Erin Brockovich and American Pie.

Now Mr Messier has gone on another shopping spree in the US, after surveying the landscape from a $17 million (€18.8 million) apartment in Manhattan for the last few months. Last week he bought into US satellite broadcaster EchoStar Communications, and on Monday completed a deal for USA Networks. This operation's cable channel reaches 98 million American homes, but trails third in cable TV ratings with its diet of mediocre movies and series like Walker, Texas Ranger and What Kind of Mother.

The Frenchman is being depicted in the US media as the new Rupert Murdoch. Like Mr Murdoch before him, the Vivendi boss has landed Barry Diller, a former head of Paramount Studios who ran News Corporation's Fox television network until 1992, when he walked out on the Australian tycoon (as many have done over the years) vowing never to work for a boss again. Mr Diller went on to create USA Networks.

The big question is whether the new parts of the French buy-up can connect well together - and whether the 59-year-old Mr Diller can be a team-player again. The deal makes this powerful Hollywood figure chief executive of the newly-created Vivendi Universal Entertainment, as well as chairman and chief executive of his own company, USA Interactive, which owns the Home Shopping Network. In his new capacity, he will oversee Universal's film, TV and theme park operations.

Plans in the works for the USA channel include an injection of movies from Universal's archives and new television series based on Universal's Erin Brockovich and American Pie titles. Mr Diller has a reputation as one of the shrewdest and impressive film executives in the business, but his USA Networks has come up with some flaky ideas like Ken's Freakquency, a midnight excursion to the weird side in Miami which flopped badly.

In private he is said to be brusque and explosive. At Fox he sometimes lashed out at employees in public and his office had what one associate described as a "robotic" atmosphere.

He has been compared to the Orson Welles character in Citizen Kane, his favourite movie, in that he makes his dreams come true while enjoying the sensations of mystery and surprise.

The New York Times yesterday called the reclusive Mr Diller "Catch of the Day" and speculated that Vivendi had landed the big one, but wondered how a freewheeling personality like Diller, who said he would never work for anyone again, could accommodate himself once more to answering to the boss of a global corporation.

Mr Diller will work for no salary and no contract, which means he can walk out again at any time, or be fired at a moment's notice. However, Mr Diller's own fortune is tied up in Vivendi Universal Entertainment, in which he has a 5.4 per cent stake worth $275 million, and this certainly gives him motivation to succeed.

Mr Diller, who last year married immensely wealthy fashion designer and long-time associate Diane von Furstenburg, also has a reputation for sticking to his word. Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Company and a close friend, described Mr Diller as someone who always delivered what he promised.

Mr Messier said he was betting that Mr Diller would bring added value to the group's film, television and cable services through his "industry vision" and "track record for growth in asset value and cash flows". This was perhaps a reference to the ironic aspect of this week's deal, whereby Mr Diller was selling back to Vivendi Universal, at a huge profit, assets that he had bought in 1997.

Mr Murdoch's New York Post headlined the story "Diller's Big Coup" and made much of the fact that Mr Diller did not shake Mr Messier's hand after a joint press conference in New York's Regis Hotel - because he saw himself as an owner and not an employee.

Also, Mr Messier and Mr Diller started off on a discordant note - they could not agree on the value of the transaction. The Frenchman estimated the value of the stock, cash and assumed tax liabilities at between $10.3 billion and $10.8 billion, while the American put it in the $11.6 billion range.

Analysts speculated that Mr Diller would be more of a figurehead and that he would spend most of his time on persuading Wall Street that Vivendi is a hot stock pick, and on growing his USA Interactive. It is an intriguing match, with all the ingredients of a future movie script, with perhaps the working title of The French Connection.