Vivendi Mulls Universal Music Group Breakup

They say that breaking up is hard to do, but that's exactly what corporate giant Vivendi is reportedly considering for its Universal Music Group and ctivision Blizzard divisions. Another spinoff would include Vivendi's telecommunications and content distribution units.

The move is designed to reverse a slide in Vivendi's stock price and reduce a discount that results from how Vivendi is structured as a holding company for diverse companies. Vivendi's board will reportedly explore the plan during a meeting in June.

While the plan is in it's early stages, Vivendi stock jumped as much as 8% when the news broke Thursday morning. 

“The question is whether a split is the right decision,” Claudio Aspesi, analyst at Sanford C Bernstein. told Bloomberg. “I’ve always believed that the most attractive option is actually to sell off a number of assets and potentially slim a company down to its core of SFR and Canal Plus.”