It currently wholly-owns Gameloft as well as a number of investments in several companies, primarily involved in content, entertainment, media, and telecommunications.

In 2024, Vivendi spun-off its non-investment businesses into three companies: Canal+ (entertainment), Havas (advertising), and Louis Hachette Group (publishing, distribution, and travel retail).

On 14 December 1853, a water company named Compagnie générale des eaux (CGE) was created by an imperial decree of Napoleon III.

[1] In 1854, CGE obtained a concession in order to supply water to the public in Lyon, serving in that capacity for over a hundred years.

[1] Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying from water into waste management, energy, transport services, and construction and property.

[4] In 1983, CGE helped to found Canal+, the first pay-TV channel in France, and in the 1990s began expanding into telecommunications and mass media, especially after Jean-Marie Messier succeeded Guy Dejouany on 27 June 1996, acquiring companies such as the Babelsberg Studio.

Vivendi went on to acquire stakes in or merge with Maroc Telecom, Havas, Cendant Software, Grupo Anaya, and NetHold, a large Continental European pay-TV operator.

Following the completion of the merger, Vivendi retained Pathé's interests in British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and CanalSatellite, a French broadcasting corporation, then sold all remaining assets to Jérôme Seydoux's family-owned holding company, Fornier SA, which changed its name to Pathé.

To raise the funds, Vivendi Universal sold its trade and medical publishing businesses to a group led by Cinven.

Amid intense media scrutiny, its chairman and CEO, Jean-Marie Messier (who had overseen the most dramatic phase of the company's diversification), was subsequently replaced by Jean-René Fourtou.

It also sold 20.4% of Vivendi Environnement's capital to a group of investors, and its stake in North American satellite operator EchoStar Communications Corporation.

[12] Also, in 2002, Vivendi Universal sold the Belgian and Dutch activities of its subsidiary Scoot Europe to Kapitol, the parent company of online directory Infobel.

[citation needed] On 16 December 2005, it was announced that Canal Plus would merge with TPS, France's second largest pay-TV provider.

[citation needed] On 2 December 2007, Vivendi announced that it would be merging its game publishing unit with Activision in a $18.8 billion deal.

[16][17] This will allow the merged company, Activision Blizzard, to rival Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video game publisher.

[citation needed] On 8 September 2009, Vivendi announced negotiations to buy the Brazilian phone operator Global Village Telecom (GVT).

[19] Geneva-based Crédit des Alpes was the investment bank to the transaction, originating the acquisition proposal and advising GVT's majority shareholders.

[citation needed] In November, Vivendi also sold its 53% stake in Maroc Telecom to Dubai-based Etisalat for around $4.2 billion.

[citation needed] The moves allowed Vivendi to pay down debt and increase cash returns to shareholders while leaving it able to do acquisitions of its own.

[36] In October, Vivendi bought minority stakes in the French video game studios Gameloft and Ubisoft.

[38] In June 2016, after having triggered a mandatory tender offer in February 2016 by reaching 30% ownership, and then becoming its largest shareholder, Vivendi completed a hostile takeover of Gameloft with the acquisition of its founders' stake.

In news from 11 September 2016 Yves Guillemot is set to buy an additional 3.5% of Ubisoft shares to raise his stake to 12.5% to attempt to block a takeover from Vivendi.

[55] At the end of the first quarter of 2020, Vivendi completed a partial sale of Universal Music Group (UMG) to a consortium led by Tencent, a Chinese media conglomerate.

The transaction will be completed by 15 December 2022, after gaining the approvals required by the current regulations in light of the takeover that could result from the mandatory public offer following this acquisition.

[69] In July 2023, Vivendi announced that Prisma Media entered into exclusive negotiations with Groupe Figaro for the sale of Gala magazine.

Vivendi's president Vincent Bolloré, appointed in June 2014, aims at developing synergies between the company's subsidiaries now refocused on media: Gameloft.

[85] In July 2016, Vivendi completed its takeover of Gameloft,[86] the world's largest mobile-games publisher in terms of downloads.

[88] On 13 February 2024, in response to a request lodged by RWB, the Conseil d'État ordered CNews, part of the Vivendi group, to better respect journalistic standards and diversity.

The website was run by what RWB states is a disinformation agency called Progressif Media, hosted at Vivendi.

The main investigator, Arnaud Froger, stated that Progressif Media used "counterfeiting, concealment, cybersquatting [and] trolling" as disinformation techniques against RWB.