Debt-ridden French conglomerate Vivendi has completed a deal to sell its US entertainment empire to media giant NBC. Under the agreement, NBC will pay about $3.8bn (�2.3bn ; 3bn euros) in cash for Vivendi's entertainment arm.
Vivendi will pick up about $3.3bn of this, while the remainder will be divided between other investors in its US entertainment arm.
NBC will also take on $1.7bn Vivendi's debt. The move, which adds the iconic Universal Studios movie brand to NBC's media empire, reverses a key part of Vivendi's ill-fated 1990s acquisition programme.
Under former chief executive Jean Marie Messier, the firm transformed itself from a staid French water company into a global conglomerate with interests in media and telecoms.
But Vivendi's expansion left it with heavy debts which last year plunged the firm into a financial crisis, and cost Mr Messier his job.
The sale of Universal is aimed at raising cash to relieve Vivendi's debt burden.
Scaled back
The firm had been hoping to receive as much as $14bn for its US entertainment assets.
But Vivendi was forced to accept a lower offer after four out of six original bidders walked away.
Apart from NBC, owned by General Electric, the only remaining suitor was a consortium led by Edgar Bronfmann Junior, a former Vivendi board member.
Vivendi shareholders will retain a 20% stake in the new company, to be called NBC Universal.
Vivendi chairman and chief executive Jean Rene Fourtou said the deal would help turn the firm's entertainment business around.
"The creation of NBC Universal will strengthen and safeguard our US assets," he said.
"It does make a major relief on his cash problems," Barclays Stockbrokers' Hillary Cook told BBC World Business Report.
GE's chief financial officer Keith Sherin said on Wednesday he expects revenues from the combination of NBC and Vivendi's media assets to reach about $14bn in the first year, excluding the Olympics.
Bringing Universal under the NBC umbrella is expected to generate up to $500m in cost savings, the companies said.
Worth some $43bn, NBC Universal owns an impressive array of media assets including Universal's film and theme parks, the NBC television network, and cable news channels CNBC and MSNBC.
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The creation of NBC Universal will strengthen and safeguard our US assets 
