Mobile phone strength gives Vivendi Universal strong quarter

Vivendi Universal, the huge media conglomerate, had a good fourth quarter, but the success was largely caused by their mobile phone business. Sales for the whole company were up to $6.67 billion for the quarter, a gain of 7% from the year before. That was about $50 million lower than analysts were expecting. The total for the whole year was $23.72 billion.

The star of the Vivendi stable was their French mobile phone operator. Their sales for the quarter were $2.69 billion. That was a jump of 20% over the previous year. The success is thanks to strong growth in subscribers and their ability to maintain the revenue per customer. That is something many operators have struggled with.

The success in mobile phone operations offset a small loss in the Universal Music division and small gains in cable and satellite operations. The companies smallest division, Vivendi Universal Games, is the creator of World of Warcraft. Their results were down sharply this quarter against 2004, but WoW was released in late 2004.