Vivendi Universal

Music magnate Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo and his brother, Chris Lorenzo, probably will be indicted this week -- possibly as early as today -- on racketeering and money laundering charges, people close to the case said. The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, N....

Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo once saw murder as a metaphor. Back in 1997, when the charismatic music producer got his own record label from Island Def Jam, he named it Murder Inc. because of what he called the moniker's "ill double meaning." "When you have a hot...

An associate of Murder Inc. chief Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, whose music label is under federal investigation for alleged money laundering, was taken into custody Thursday as a suspect in the shooting of a New York police captain. Tyran Moore surrendered after...

Jane Sindell woke up Tuesday morning to a congratulatory phone message from Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer of Vivendi Universal Entertainment. The studio's "Seabiscuit," on which she was a producer, had landed a best picture Oscar...

Around this time last year, Atari's "Enter the Matrix" was to have been the definitive convergence of Hollywood and video games. But for gamers, the only two things that converged were boredom and disappointment, as "Matrix," with its clunky gameplay...

ORLANDO -- The prospects of a sale or spinoff of Vivendi Universal's entertainment assets into a separate company has the U.S. theme-park industry buzzing, potential buyers looking and Universal Orlando executives swallowing hard. The Orlando resort...

Looking back, the truest sign that then-Vivendi Universal honcho Jean-Marie Messier was toast may have come when he showed up for a public forum at the Beverly Hilton two years ago with Viacom Chief Executive Sumner Redstone and other entertainment...

For three holiday seasons, record executives say, Internet piracy has been the Grinch of the music business, undercutting album sales and labels' year-end profits. So how did the labels open the biggest music-buying period of the year? By shipping an...

- June 20, 2000: Vivendi announces its three-way merger with Seagram, owner of Universal Studios, and pay-television group Canal Plus. - Dec. 5, 2000: Shareholders approve the $34 billion deal. Afterward, Vivendi Chairman Jean-Marie Messier says,...

Is the dream of convergence dead? In January 2000, America Online and Time Warner announced they would marry, culminating a long and closely watched flirtation between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The idea of convergence was to combine Internet...

For 40 years, federal law has prohibited broadcasters from accepting money or anything of value in exchange for playing songs on the radio without disclosing the practice to listeners. But internal documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times indicate...